Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, Pantheon, Shopping, and More: Italy Part 5

Our third full day in Italy day started with a 10:30 skip the line tour of the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's. Especially since this turned out to be our most grueling day, it was nice to sleep in a little. We set out walking at 9:45. The walk to the Vatican was interesting. We crossed the river, and the closer we got, the more we began to encounter street vendors selling things - bottles of cold water, souvenirs, etc. They would call out to us - "nice American family, cool water?" Geez, are we that obvious? At the Colosseum, we had been warned by our tour guide never to buy bottled water from the guys on the street. It's just the same water you're getting from the fountains, he told us, and sometimes, they took the bottles from the trash. Just another reason to carry your own water bottle! 

In the first Vatican throne room

We soon met up with our tour guide from The Roman Guy, Jeanette. She was delightfully funny, and from Kissimmee, FL! You have to wait in a line for a security check - go through a metal detector and have your bag x-rayed. It was a hot process, but she kept us laughing as we listened to her banter through our ear buds. I don't know if it was the earpiece or the receiver, but mine was a little staticky, and I was thankful not to have to understand an Italian accent. 

Laocoön and His Sons

Michaelangelo's Pieta

Once you're in the Vatican museum, you cannot imagine the crowd. There's not much opportunity to stop and appreciate the art. The tour guide has to do the best she can to show you the highlights and get you through to the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's within the time limits for the tour. If you tried to do this without a guide, you could potentially waste tons of time just by not knowing where the most interesting things are. Jeanette was a very knowledgeable art historian, and I would really have liked a private, non-crowded tour with her, but as I understand it, even the before-hours tours are crowded this time of year. There's no AC. I would not recommend bringing a small child or a child in a stroller on this tour. It's brutal. If you lose your tour guide in the sea of people, you're just lost. I lost sight of MB for a minute, and was just about to panic when I saw her. There are seven miles of corridors in the Vatican museums, and the guards route you through a path depending on crowd control. Neither you nor the tour guide gets to choose. I asked Jeanette if she had to be prepared to talk about everything in the museum. She said, "Oh, I can make up something about everything in the museum!" 

Ceiling in the hall of maps

One of the things we learned is just how much this display of wealth was for propaganda and power. Jeanette made me more interested to learn about Michaelangelo who seemed to have had his own deep faith manipulated by church officials to do their bidding. Without question, my favorite thing from the morning was Michaelangelo's Pieta. It is simply stunning and deeply evocative. 

In the churches, you will be required to have your shoulders and knees covered. MB and I prepared for stopping into churches by carrying large, gauzy scarves that we tied around our purse handles. I wore a dress on this day that met the code, but MB had on a sundress. So, she just draped her shoulders with a scarf - no problem. We saw lots of women doing the same and wearing scarves like a sarong over shorts as well. Most of the men seemed to be wearing trousers, but a few had on shorts. They didn't seem to attract the attention of the gate keepers. Not fair, really. You can't take any photos in the Sistine Chapel, but you can take photos, even with flash in St. Peter's.

Altar in St. Peter's

In St. Peter's

The truth is that we saw so much art, so many amazing masterpieces, that I was a little glazed over, not to mention very hot and very tired by the time we finished. We got a taxi from the Vatican back to the hotel - a taxi that, it turns out, probably scammed us on the fare. The guy at the taxi stand told us that there was a special fare from the Vatican and quoted a price that we thought sounded high, but he said it was because it was from the Vatican area. I don't think it was right, and the driver didn't run his meter. 

After resting a bit, we set out to see the Pantheon and do some shopping. One of our first stops was for gelato at Grom. The tour guides will tell you that there's "real" gelato, and "fake" gelato. To be honest, I'm not sure whether this was real or fake, but it was cold and creamy and delicious, so I didn't care! Kevin and MB liked the gelato from another place, but the flavor I had here was my favorite. Pastry cream with lemon zest. Yum!

The Pantheon is amazing. It's important to remember that this is now a functioning church (since the 7th century!), so cover up. The building standing was completed by the emperor Hadrian probably around 126 AD, and is the best preserved building from ancient Rome. They aren't exactly sure how it was used. It's wild to turn a corner and suddenly be confronted, in the midst of all of the thronging modern crowds of people, with a building that is so very old. It doesn't take long to walk around. Rick Steves has a good audio tour. So, out again for shopping. 

There's good shopping all around the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain area, and lots and lots of stores, many high-end on Via Del Corso. Leather goods like purses, wallets, and leather-bound notebooks are a good buy in Italy. We enjoyed the shops on the side streets the most. MB bought some earrings and we both bought purses. Soon, by about 5:30 we were getting very hot, tired, and cranky. We had purchased tickets ahead for a light show at the Forum of Augustus that didn't actually start until 9:00pm. In hindsight, I should not have bought those tickets ahead. This would have been a good night to just go back to the hotel, eat at a nearby restaurant, and nurse a glass of wine as we watched the crowd go by and rest. But, since we had the tickets, we felt we had to go. But, before then, we needed something with more substance than gelato. 

We were close by, so we stopped at at sidewalk cafe near Via Del Corso called Antico Caffe Castellino. This was definitely a tourist place, but at that point, we didn't care. As it turned out, it was a great decision! MB and I ordered mineral water, and Kevin got a very large beer. Our waiter turned out to be a hoot, playing around with us, giving MB Kevin's very large beer, bringing her a 2-foot long straw so she could steal it anyway, etc. The levity was very welcome! We ordered pasta and lingered for a long time there before doing a little more walking and shopping and finally arriving for the light show.

The show at the Forum of Augustus is really unique. You are given a headset that gives commentary in your own language, and you sit in bleachers facing the ruins and an ancient firewall. Until the show starts, the headphones play soothing music. It was very pleasant to sit, as the temperature was cooling off, and listen to the music. The show projected lights onto the ruins to help you imagine what they would have looked like once, and the commentary explained the story of the site. I enjoyed it very much, and would have enjoyed it even more if we all hadn't been so tired. There is a second show that follows called the Caesar Tour which involves walking. We didn't book that one, but the reviews of it are good. 

We stopped for gelato again when we walked back to the hotel. No apologies for having gelato twice. At the end of this day, we had walked 10.4 miles.

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Part 6