Rome and the Vatican City

We arrived in Rome, by train from Venice, at the Termini Station. Our hotel, the Hotel Morgana, was a short walk from the train station, which was very convenient (however, Kim thought it was a tad bit seedy to maneuver through.) After settling in at the hotel, which was very nice and charming and also featured two of the smallest elevators we have ever seen, we walked back to Termini to try to buy the Roma Pass, which is apparently the cost-effective and convenient way to get around Rome and see the major sights. Much to our surprise, here and everywhere else that we tried to buy the Roma Pass, we were confronted with signs saying "Roma Pass Sold Out". Presumably there is a strictly controlled ration of these valuable passes and we were unable to get our hands on any of the limited supply.

Wide load not welcome!

On our first evening in Rome, we visited the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. These beautiful sights are spectacular, but are also an interesting testament to the saying that "from the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step". This is because it is difficult to enjoy the beauty of your surroundings in these places because of the rag-bag crew of street hawkers, hustlers and other deadbeat types, who repeatedly and insistently harass you to buy roses, trinkets, illuminated toys, and various other items that fit squarely in the "worthless junk" category. It's almost surprising how annoying and irritating the presence of these people makes the experience of sightseeing in Rome, but they are absolutely an integral part of the experience and the local police seem to do little to combat this scourge.

Trevi Fountain by night.

The Spanish Steps

Having adapted, somewhat, to this annoying aspect of sightseeing in Rome, we set out the next day to visit the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. We were able to take the Metro Line A right from Termini station to the Colosseum, so it was easy and convenient to get to where we needed to be. This is a good thing because we spent a very long day walking around the Forum and the Colosseum seeing all the sights and, as in Venice, learning about the history behind what we were seeing from Rick Steves' interesting and entertaining guide book. Being immersed in the history of the Roman Empire in these places is amazing and inside the Colosseum you can't help but visualize what it must have looked like with tens of thousands of Romans baying for blood while watching gladiators engaging in mortal combat and various undesirables being fed to random animals.

Roman Forum Ruins

Colosseum

On our next and final full day in Rome, we went to visit the Vatican City. We trooped dutifully through the Vatican Museum, passing countless spectacular works of art and much priceless treasure that was "acquired" by the Catholic Church over the centuries. This experience is somewhat overwhelming and you find yourself passing without a thought pieces of art that are probably among the greatest ever created, but that are just slightly less significant than the more famous items that you are really here to see. First and foremost (and practically the last stop on this tour) among those is Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This is breathtaking beyond words and your head spins, and neck starts to hurt, trying to imagine how he created this masterpiece, lying on his back on scaffolding beneath the high ceiling and taking a total of four years to complete the project. There is no danger of failing to appreciate the spectacular nature of this work of art and we spent some considerable time there trying to take it all in. Again, Rick Steves' book provided some useful education on the various panels that make up the whole fresco.

The map room (Rob's favorite) in the Vatican City Museum.

After completing our tour of the Vatican Museum, we moved on to St Peter's Basilica. The scale of this church is difficult to imagine, but there are helpful markings on the floor inside that show where other enormous Catholic churches in various cities of the world would fit inside St Peter's. It helps you appreciate the grandeur of the structure when you are standing half-way down the church and the markings on the floor show you that the next fifteen largest churches in the world would only reach from the altar to the point where you are standing. The highlight of our visit was being startled to discover the body of Pope John XXIII lying in a glass box in front of us. At first, we thought this was a statue or a likeness and that he must be buried underneath, but we then realized that this was the actual body of John XXIII, looking remarkably well preserved given that he died in 1963.

Seriously, a bit creepy.

Out front of the Basilica

Finally, we completed our visit by taking an elevator and countless steps to the top of the dome of the basilica, from where you have a beautiful view of the Vatican City, the city of Rome, and the surrounding countryside. The dome itself is a feat of construction engineering that is hard to appreciate, but it is impossible not to appreciate the view, and we (Kim) spent some time there taking pictures and enjoying the warm evening air.

View from the top!

As all good things must come to an end, the next day we took a taxi to the Fiumicino Airport early in the morning, driven there by a very charming and pleasant young Roman man who enthusiastically told us that "America is my dream!" and that it was his life's wish to visit New York, Miami and Las Vegas. Having been a bit unsure about the people in Rome and having had one unpleasant restaurant experience in particular, this guy left us with a very good impression of Rome and Italian people, which was a very nice note on which to end our trip.

To see a more extensive set of photos from our trip to Italy, visit this link:  Photo album from Italy