Kerry in Rome 3rd Night: Nov. 17, 2005

Hi, Everybody!

What did I do today? St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums. But first off, right after breakfast I went over to the train station and bought 2 all-day passes, for today and tomorrow. Then I searched for the right place to get myself some seat reservations on specific trains for Florence and Venice. I decided to take the 2nd class slow train once and the Eurostar fast train once, to see if it was worth the difference. One reservation was 3 euros and the other was 12 euros.

Then I went outside and bought an all-day ticket for the red double-decker tourist bus. They give you an orange earpiece set, which you plug in and choose your language. They drive past all the major sights, and you can hop on and off all day long. It went past the Forum and the Coliseum and Circus Maximus and across the Tiber River to St. Peter's and the Vatican, which is where I got off.

I walked 10 minutes over to the Vatican Museums and paid €13 to get in. Larry, you would have been proud of me! I went zooming past all their wonderful tapestries and paintings, and just stopped and admired the really famous ones I wanted to see: Carravaggio, Taking Jesus Down from the Cross; Raphael, School of Athens; and the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. Fighting the crowds, that alone takes about 90 minutes. It's quite a walk. Then I took an exit that was for tour groups only, and it sent me down this long elegant stairway and dumped me out right in St. Peter's Square! That was really cool; I found it in Rick Steve's.

For the church of St. Peter's itself, I rented an audioguide. That's a bust; too much info and too dry. I couldn't listen to half of it. Luckily, it only cost me €5, but between that and my Rick Steve's guidebook and what I remembered, I really enjoyed the world's biggest church.

I decided to face the long line and climb to the top of the dome. The line went pretty fast, only about 20 minutes, then into the elevator up to the roof plaza. You can go in this passageway to look down into the inside of the center of the church, right over the altar, and look up into the dome. Then you climb up over 300 narrow curving steps between the skin and the inner shell of the dome to the very top. When you come out, you have to wait your turn to step out to the railing, but the view is so worth it!

I could look down on the Vatican gardens in one direction and St. Peter's Square in another. You can see the Wedding Cake a ways off, and far out in the distance, taller buildings. Rome has no modern skyline; all the roofs are red or grey and shorter than St. Peter's. Zoning is like Salt Lake's, where the (unwritten) rule is you must not be taller than the Church Office Building.

On top of St. Peter's roof I found a little refreshment shop. They only had a few things, the only real food they had was a sweet croissant, so I got that.

On coming down, I walked around in the church again, and found out this really cool thing. If I bring a group, I must use a wireless microphone and all my people use headsets. They loan me the mic, and each person pays €1 to rent the headset. Cool, huh? All of Rome seems to be into wireless headsets for tour groups. You don't very often hear the tour leader speaking loudly to his group. It's kind of nice.

I went part way down into the crypt, then decided it was going to see where Pope Paul was buried, and so came back out, walking against the hordes of people.

I hopped back on the red double decker bus (by this time it was 4:00) and came home to drop off my bag and bandage my blistered feet. Then off again, this time a few stops by Metro and then to catch a little eletricco bus which was supposed to take me right over by the Pantheon. NOT so fast! Evidently the eletricco route has been changed. So I asked a lady sitting by me which stop to get off for Pantheon, and that set half the bus to discussing which would be my best option. They discussed it for 10 minutes! I gathered that no matter which way I took, it would involve several blocks and lots of turns.

Finally this 60ish-looking man with a wheeze said he would take me. By this time it was totally dark (5:00) and I thought that Larry would definitely not like me going with him, but the 3 ladies were all agreed that it would be best. What a commotion I started! When I realized that the bus was nowhere near where I thought it would be, and I was totally lost, and I couldn't find any street signs, I got off and followed this guy about 6 blocks through little narrow streets, till he finally pointed and left me. I found the Pantheon easily. My theory was, he wheezed constantly like a heart patient, and I could probably take him if I had to!

The Pantheon was sehr cool, all lit up at night and with a lovely fountain in front of it. I wish this picture wasn't so dark. I sat down inside with my guidebook for awhile, figuring out where to go next. As I was looking up at the hole in the roof, beautiful white birds kept flying over, lit by the light from inside. They were probably pigeons, but I like to think they were doves.

I decided to try to find my way to Area Sacre, which is near the Benetton shop. It is a block of ruins which is about 20 feet below today's street level. It too, is lovely with night lighting. There are still cats all over Rome, climbing among the ruins!

Rick Steve's Night Walk Across Rome sounded interesting, and by this time I had my 2nd wind. I walked from Campo Fiori (wild idea-man Bruno was burned at the stake here) to Piazza Navona, with Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain. I loved this fountain. This particular Piazza is a long rectangle, because it used to be a Roman chariot racetrack. In Roman times the level of the city was about 20 feet lower, so in the 1800's the citizens used to flood the old raceway in summer for a swimming pool! Here I also had the world's best Chocolate Tartuffo with whipped cream. To die for!

From there I found my way through the winding medieval pedestrian streets back to the Trevi Fountain. I got fairly lost, but I met a couple who were also following Rick Steve's night walk, and we all got oriented.

Troy, I found an even better pizza place over by Campo Fiori. I'll have to take Angela there in June!

On the way back to the city bus stop, the red double decker bus passed me, and I still had my all-day pass, so I decided to run to catch it. I chased that dang thing 3 blocks uphill, once even banging on the door, but the driver didn't see me and left me standing in the middle of the busy street with traffic on all sides. It finally got away. It was dark and I was tired. I gave up and took the Metro home.

Tomorrow will be my last full day in Rome, and I still have so much I want to see. I'm going to have to start getting up earlier!

That's enough for now. I hope I can find an easy internet point in Florence and in Venice. This one is right across from my hotel. I'm using these e-mails as my trip journal, because I forgot to bring a book to write in.

I hope you are all doing well,

Love,

Kerry