Trip Day 15 - Rome

Breakfast in the hotel at 7:00. Headed out for the Vatican at 8:00 AM. Walked to the Termini metro stop and took the metro to the Otoviano stop. It is Saturday, so the metro was not too crowded. Had it been a weekday at that time, we would have been jammed in like sardines and that is prime pick pocketing situation. We toured the Vatican museum, which was very neat. There are 4 miles worth of exhibits. We hit the highlights. Next we went into the Sistine Chapel. That is a must-see sight. Pretty unbelievable. It took Michaelangelo four years to paint that ceiling. The walls are covered in paintings, also. It is supposed to be totally quiet in there, but it is impossible to keep all those people quiet. The guards are constantly requesting “silencio,” but it seems to just make people talk louder! One guy did get thrown out because he wouldn’t shut up. (not in our group, we think it was an Italian). After we toured the Sistine Chapel, we toured St. Peter’s Basilica.  Also, a must-see. There are tons of “paintings” in there, too, but they aren’t paintings - they are mosaics. They look like paintings. The Basilica is huge. I think they said it’s the largest church in the world. After St. Peter’s, we were on our own for the rest of the day.

Gary and I sat around Vatican Square for quite a while, resting our bones and people watching. Then, we walked around sort of looking for a place to eat. We ended up eating at a restaurant near the Vatican and were able to sit at a table on the sidewalk. It was very good, but when I came out of the ladies room, a busload of Italians on a tour had come in and they were all trying to use the two bathrooms that this restaurant had. About six of them (men and women) were standing in the little sink area, which might have been big enough for two people, when I came out of the bathroom. I had to shove through to wash my hands and then when I went out in the hall to go back to the table, they had the whole hallway blocked and were trying to cram more people into the little sink area! It was the most unbelievable experience I’ve ever been involved in. I don’t know what the purpose of cramming more people into that little area was, but they were intent on doing this! I couldn’t get down the hall to leave. I told them “I HAVE TO GET OUT!” and just shoved a couple of them aside! It had to be done because these nuts were not following any of the usual rules of civilized people! Ugh! Up until then, the day had been great and lunch had been great. It took a while to chill out after that!

So, we left there and figured we’d head back to the Otoviano metro station and make our way back to our hotel area. We went down to the station and were just about to put our tickets in the turnstile when Gary noticed a sign that said the line to the Termini station was not running and we’d have to take a bus. We went back up to the street and got on the bus, which was crowded and we had to stand, but it was ok. Well, the bus stopped at another stop and picked up more people and at this point, we’re packed in and actually jammed up against other people. They stopped the bus again and even MORE people got on. We were all the way in the back and then I was jammed up against the back of the bus and people were squishing me! It was hot, also! All I could see were arms because people had their arms up in front of my face holding onto the pole that I was squished up against on one side. This is not my preferred mode of travel. At the next stop, I decided I’m getting off no matter where we are. Not only was I starting to sweat, but I was afraid other people’s sweat was also getting on me! I yelled over to Gary through the crowd that we were getting off. We tried to get off, but the doors wouldn’t open because people were in the way! Well, I kept pushing the button that made that little ding noise to open the door and stating clearly to those around me that we were getting off, until finally, the people shoved back enough to get the door open! We went back to the hotel and took showers and washed the clothes we had been wearing to get everyone’s sweat and germs off of ourselves. What an afternoon! We ended up sleeping for a while since there have been a lot of days in a row of getting up early and going full blast until late at night and we had just had to do battle to get ourselves back to the hotel. I’m always tired after doing battle.



So, after catching up on some sleep, Jamie knocked on our door at about 7:30 and said people were meeting downstairs to go to the Spanish Steps and get some dinner. So we went on that outing along with seven others.. The Spanish Steps have a fountain at the bottom and it seems like a nice area. I will have to read up later to see what they are all about. We found a trattoria on the way back toward the hotel nd had another nice meal. I had ravioli this time and Gary had cannelloni. We also had roasted potatoes. Not many carbs in this meal! J Oh, don’t forget bread, too! At least my ravioli had spinach in it! There’s a veggie! On the way back from dinner, stopped and got gelato and it was a neat place where they were playing music that you couldn’t help dancing to. It was 80’s American music, so we were eating gelato and dancing around. Then we went back to the hotel to get some sleep and prepare to head to the Cinque Terre tomorrow (the Italian Riviera).