Conquering the Map

Rising early, we knew we needed to figure out train tickets and how to get to the Vatican early to avoid long queues (lines). When we got to our Vatican stop, we scurried past the people from our train and up past the Vatican walls to the museum entrance. We only needed to wait 25 minutos before roaming the beautiful Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Centuries ago Popes liked to decorate their palace courtyards with Roman statues of nymphs, centaurs, Gods and Goddesses which is weird since they did not really approve of pagan religion. We winded our way through rooms with paintings and tapestries until we reached the Sistine Chapel. It was brilliantly colored and smack in the middle of the ceiling was Michaelangelo’s famous painting where God touches man finger to finger and gives him “the spark of life”.

After the museum we walked back around the high Vatican walls and into the proper entrance to the enormous courtyard welcoming us to Saint Peter’s Basilica aka Catholic Headquarters. We waited in line to walk below saint Peter’s in the hallways where all of the Popes have been buried. It was especially amazing to witness the priests, nuns and pilgrims who had journeyed from far places to see where John Paul II is entombed. Guards stood near while people prayed. Just beyond this was a chapel where inside the bones of Saint Peter himself are buried. Not ironically, they are buried directly below the altar which makes one think about the bible quote, “And upon this rock I will build my church.” As we left the crypt we stopped for photos of the Pope’s special guards who are the most excellent Swiss Military men.

The Basilica was amazing and is the biggest Catholic church in the world. Inside among the gold and marble were altars and smaller places to pray or go to adoration. We saw a saint that we need to check if he was incorruptible - Saint Jerome - just laying there for us to see. We were able to go to Mass as well. Good thing we have it pretty much memorized because it was in Italian!

We continued on trying to get to some more of the sites on our trusty (yet poorly to scale) map of Rome. We saw the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Vittorio Emmanuele II Monument (the monument to the unification of Italy and where the Italian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is). The Pantheon was massive and quite a sight, we threw a penny over our shoulder into the Trevi Fountain, and from the top of the Vitorrio Emmanuele we enjoyed some spectacular views of Rome and the forum ruins. Just walking around Rome was a lot of fun, it’s a really nice city to explore and wander through. Later in the afternoon we stopped at a little roadside cafe (one of thousands in the city) and Kristen conquered Italian food with some pizza :-).

With the bit of time we had left (for the day) we managed to head over to where the Colosseum, Constantine’s Arch, and the Roman Forum ruins are. We checked those out quickly before having to hop on a train back to our hotel and get ready to meet our tour leader and fellow travelers!

After getting off the train at the Termini stop near our hotel we had to stop at an ATM along the way to grab some cash (which we needed for the meeting). This was supposed to be a quick and easy stop along the way...right? However, we were not informed by the ATM Pin Length Organization (APLO, ok I made that up) that in Italy ALL bancomats (ATMs) only accept up to 6 digit pin numbers when withdrawing cash. Matt’s ATM pin is 8 digits long and Kristen could not remember hers...super. Basically, after checking every ATM we could find we ended up having to go to the meeting without the money we were supposed to have with us. More to come on this pin-travesty later...

Going into the intro meeting we were curious as to how many people were going to be on our next trip, which was run by Intrepid and was going to take us from Rome to Paris over the next 21 days. As we arrived late for the meeting we found only 3 people, and one of them was the tour leader!

We took care of the paperwork and other Intrepid requirements during the meeting, but more importantly we met our group: there was Scotch and Phil from Melbourne, Australia, and our trip leader Diane from England (though she lives outside Venice now). Scotch and Phil were married just this March...making the only two couples on the trip both on “honeymoon” (well delayed or extended honeymoon...).

Diane, as it turns out, was not actually our tour leader though... The guy that was slated to be our leader had a last minute family emergency and he flew elsewhere to see his family instead of meeting us in Roma. Diane told us at our meeting that she would need to fly back to Venice but that she would guide us for several days before Monica from Spain would be able to fly and meet us as our guide for the majority of the trip... Anyway, we were excited about starting our trip through the heart of Europe.

After the meeting and getting to know each other a bit we headed off to dinner around the corner at Salsamenteria Verdiana -- which features food from North of Rome which was fantastic. Kristen tried gnocci for the first time, thus officially coronating her a pasta-eater!

Arrivederci!