The Grand Tour (Day 18): Rome

If there was a theme to today's tours, it would be: Catholic.  After a breakfast on the terrazo and catching the Hop-on/Hop-off bus to a stop near the Colisseum, we arrived at San Pietro in Vincoli.  (As we were told, the City's transit system was shut down for the day, although to help people get to work, the system was running for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the later afternoon.)  With the transit system shut down, most tourists flocked to the hop-of/hop-off buses and we found them to be extremely crowded (not to mention inefficiently operated).

San Pietro in Vincoli is a Catholic church in the southern part of Rome whose claim to fame is a sacred relic believed to be the chains that held Peter the Apostle as a prisoner when he was held in Rome.  Also, the church is noted for its tomb of Pope Julius II, whose tomb was designed and carved by Michelangelo.

Back of the Church looking toward the altar.

Pope Julius' tomb

Michelangelo's famous sculpture of Moses

That's Pope Julius relaxing on the ledge above Moses

The chains that supposedly held Peter the Apostle

One of the tombs along the side of the Church, this one featuring the grim reaper

As we exited the Church, we crossed the street to see the hotel where Becky stayed when she toured Europe before we were married.  (At least, this is the one that was listed in her itinerary.  She didn't remember it.)

Hotel Palatino

We hopped back on the tourist bus and began a long trip around Rome.  Traffic was a nightmare because of the transit strike.  But as we passed by the Colisseum, I mentioned to Becky, "Oh, yeah.  There's the Roman Colisseum."  It just seemed to funny to be passing by such an iconic landmark and just thinking, ho-hum....there's the Colisseum.

We rode the bus over near the Vatican and then backtracked a bit to see the Castel Sant'Angelo.  The castle was originally built in 135 AD (about 100 years after Christ), and was the mausoleum of Hadrian (as in Hadrian's Wall in northern England).  It was added on over the Centuries and eventually became the castle of refuge for Popes who found themselves under attack.

Looking up the promenade toward the Vatican

Walking up the spiral ramp in Castel Sant'Angelo

View from the top of the Castel Sant'Angelo to the Tiber River

Becky on the roof of Castel Sant'Angelo looking toward the Vatican.  The elevated walkway in the lower right is the protected walk from the Vatican apartments down to the Castel, and where a few of the Popes fled for safety.

Overlooking the City of Rome with all of the domed roofs

Tiber River

The Angel of Castel Sant'Angelo

Battlements of the Castel

Becky standing in front of the Castel on the bridge over the River

I just found this humorous

As we were walking back to the bus drop-off to go back to the hotel, the traffic around the City was gridlocked.  The lady below wins my vote for the Orneriest Roman of the Day Award.  As tourists started crossing the street when the light changed, she started inching forward trying to cut everyone off from passing in front of HER.  She actually moved so close that she clipped peoples legs as they were trying to get through the gaps in the cars.  People were incredulous that she could be so rude and aggressive.  The only thing I could do was capture her with the only weapon I had:  my camera.

Orneriest Roman of the Day Winner

We took a nap during the hot afternoon and headed out about 5 pm to catch the bus back to the Vatican.  The hop-on/hop-off loop only went in a one direction loop around the City, so we had to go nearly the entire circuit before getting to the Vatican.  It was hot and crowded and we were worried we wouldn't make it into the Vatican before it closed.

We finally arrived and rushed to go through security so we could get inside.  Fortunately, there was virtually no line, just the hassle of going through metal detectors and having bags x-rayed.

St. Peter's Square with Bernini's colonnade

The Pope's apartment (top right corner)

Pope's apartment with the colonnade in front

Entrance into the Vatican apartment guarded by the Swiss Guard

Front facade of the Vatican

Looking back to St. Peter's Square

The Vatican was spectacular!  The scale of it is immense.  Every inch is exquisitely decorated with patterns or symbols.  I found it to be very beautiful.  I especially liked the fact that it had some light shining through some of the upper windows that created an ethereal effect.

Michelangelo's Pieta,  It's now behind bullet-proof glass because it was damaged by a guy with a hammer 15-20 years ago.

Nave of St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Baldachin (canopy over the main altar) with the dome above it.  The words on the bottom of the dome read [in latin], "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church."

Main altar built over the supposed grave of Peter in the catacombs below.  (I didn't have the heart to let them know that Peter was already resurrected.)

Window behind the main altar representing the Holy Ghost

Becky is standing at the bottom of the column, just to give you a sense of the immense scale

Swiss Guard outside one of the entrances to the private Vatican grounds

Becky fell in love

The Sistine Chapel roof poking up behind the corner of the Vatican

We didn't see enough nuns while we were there.  So I had to capture a picture of these from a distance

The elevated walk over to the Castel Sant'Angelo

Another squadron from the Swiss Guard

Usually, entrance into the Vatican Museums is one of the longest lines in Rome, sometimes taking more than 2-3 hours.  I read online about a once-weekly nighttime opening of the museums where they only allow a limited number of people inside.  I ordered tickets online as soon as they became available and ordered the 7 pm time slot to give us a full 3 hours inside the museum. We walked around the to the back side of Vatican City where the entrance to the museum is located and waited about 10 minutes for our entry time.

Museum entrance

The museum is comprised of rooms of former papal apartments along LONG hallways.  Each of the hallways is decorated from floor to ceiling with beautiful artwork, mosaics, tapestries and/or paintings.

The map room

The tapestry room (it was air-conditioned)!

Medieval map of Italy

Looking out one of the windows into the Vatican Gardens

We walked quickly through the entire museum and went straight to the Sistine Chapel.  On a typical museum day, there are several hundred people standing shoulder to shoulder inside the chapel.  When we arrived, there were maybe 20 people sitting around the sides of the rooms on the benches and we had free reign to just walk around the chapel and look at it from a variety of angles.  Photos weren't permitted (!) so these were taken at waist level.  Since it was just getting dusk, the light levels were quite low and I couldn't make adjustments without being seen.  Sorry the photos are blurry.

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with Adam and the finger of God in the very center.

Michelangelo's Last Judgement on the West wall.  I LOVE this painting and the symbolism in it.

We then walked back around to the beginning of the museum (a guard let us through a rope) and we spent more time in each of the rooms and went through some of the smaller hallways and rooms off the main route.  (Eventually, we made our way back again to the Sistine Chapel, and this time there were maybe 50-100 people in the room....still a more manageable crowd than normal).

Papal rings from past Popes

Sistine Chapel from the museum window.  If you look in the window alcove, you can see they light the windows with artificial light through an opaque glass.

The Court of the Pigna (Pine)

This is why its called the Court of the Pigna

In the Roman section.  This reminded me of Nacho

Court of the Pigna

Laocoön and His Sons.  We saw copies of this all over Europe

Inspired by the Pantheon

Two Roman Beauties

We then made our way toward the Raphael Rooms and the Borgia Apartments.

The School of Athens painting on the ceiling and wall of one of the Raphael Rooms

This was technically a legal picture, if only of the Sistine Chapel sign

The Pope's Garden

The Basilica at dusk

Spiral ramp in the museums

We left the museums and realized later (even after we got home) that we had inadvertently skipped a whole section of the museum with its oil paintings.  Dang.  Guess we need to go back.  We walked back around to St. Peter's Square and saw the Vatican and the Piazza lit up.

We refilled our water bottles in one of the fountains and then started walking back to our hotel.  We were uncertain if the buses would still be running, but we took a chance and waited at the stop, and about 15 min later, the last bus of the evening pulled around the corner.  It was such a nice sight!  It meant our aching feet could get a rest.  Again, we arrived back at the hotel exhausted.