Tuesday – Vatican
I was up, showered, and down to the supermarket again by 8am. I’d brought the wrong travel adaptor, so had to go and find one or else DP’s array of iPhones, iPods and Nintendo DS’s would be running out of juice. After much gesturing with three fingers to the non-English speaking shop assistant (I could only manage the very fewest words in Italian – grazie, si, buon giorno) she guessed what I was after, but there were no British > Italian adapters in the shop. Starting to worry, I walked back wondering where I might possibly find an electrical shop. Amazingly, just as I neared the apartment I looked down a small street and there were two shops just there! After a bit more gesturing with three fingers, and parting with 4 Euros, I got an adaptor.
I also intended to pop into Burger King on the way past and pick up a couple of breakfast burgers. Sadly, it didn’t open until 11am – which led me to understand that Italians really don’t bother with breakfast much, and certainly not protein-based English/American style stuff. Instead, we made do with toast up in the apartment each morning.
Before struggling back up the stairs, I also popped into a nearby Tabac shop and bought four 1 Euro tickets for bus/train trips.
At about 9.40am we caught the bus directly outside the apartment on Via Tritone which took us all the way to the Vatican, ready for our 11.30am Scavi Tour.
On arriving at the Vatican, my first plan was to ‘pop in’ to St Peter’s Basilica to drop off DP’s backpack, since I’d read that bags like his were not allowed on the tour. That plan soon went out of the window when we saw the line to enter St Peter’s stretched all the way from the entrance, around the right edge of the square and practically met the left side of the columns. I decided immediately that we couldn’t join that queue and make it for the tour in time.
In quite a dilemma, we went over to the left hand side of the Basilica where two pretty stern looking Swiss Guards stood behind a bit of a barricade. Every so often, a tourist would tentatively approach them, only for one of them two come forward and shoo them back again. It all looked very daunting, but thankfully I had read reports on this forum, and I knew that the Excavations Office was indeed past these guards.
So, with my confirmation printout in my hand, I crept conspicuously towards them (I’m a big guy – I’m not easily missed) watched by the surrounding crowd. Luckily, the paper did it for me! The Swiss Guard was obviously well used to tourists approaching timidly with their printouts. He also spoke good English, and after explaining that we had a tour in about 45 minutes but not enough time to join the queue to drop off the backpack, he suggested we bypassed the queue and go up towards the Basilica from this left hand side, past the two security guards. They, however, were not so easily swayed, and after explaining the situation again let DP, on his own, past so that he could go and deposit his backpack.
After about 20 minutes, DP returned with the backpack still, well, on his back! The bag check service at the Basilica wouldn’t let him leave it. Apparently, it was small enough not to worry about. Lesson learned! So if anybody is thinking of taking this tour, despite the warnings to the contrary, you certainly can take reasonably sized backpacks and bags with you.
The Scavi Tour itself was very interesting, and sombre at times. Our English language tour was made up of ten Americans and us. Our tour leader was also from America, and he was friendly and entertaining as he showed us round the excavations under the Basilica, and eventually to where the presumed remains of St Peter were found. After that he led us up to the next level where we were able to squeeze amongst the masses to see the tomb of Pope John Paul II, before leaving the building.
After the tour, we made our way back round to the front of the Basilica, and were freely allowed to walk up to the entrance, bypassing any queue which remained over on the right of the square.
Once inside St Peter’s I played Rick Steves’ audio tour on the iPod, and walked round admiring the vastness and the majesty of the building. It was very busy, and there was some kind of service going on right at the far end. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to complete the tour since just after getting past the bit telling me about the dome all visitors were ushered back into the main aisle as the people involved with the service left the building. Who knows, maybe it was even the Pope himself? We couldn’t see over the heads of the tourists to be sure.
After leaving the Vatican, we decided not to brave the Museums and Sistine Chapel, and instead we walked over to Castel St Angelo. It was very hot, and legs were already beginning to tire. Nevertheless, we paid our 8.50 Euros each and started walking up the steps and circular pathways to reach the top. Thankfully, I knew there was a recommended café/bar at the top, so we gratefully took a seat and had a pleasant toasted sandwich/ focaccia for 5 Euros each, whilst we sat and admired the view over towards the Vatican.
After that, we went a little way further to the top of the castle to see the great views over Rome, and take some photos.
I’m not sure the castle was worth the entrance fee, really, since other than the views there was little of interest to us. Still, the views were very good and the café provided a welcome resting place.
After leaving the castle, we had no fixed plans. I thought we might catch a bus somewhere to take us back. DP, however, had other ideas, and suggested we walked back. I didn’t really mind, since it is really interesting just walking round places you’ve never been before.
After walking along the banks, and then crossing the river, we aimed in the direction of the Spanish Steps, stopping off to raise our eyebrows at the price of things in the Ferrari store on the way. On arriving at the Spanish Steps, we were far too tired to consider walking up them, so we continued back towards the apartment for a shower and a rest – absolutely shattered from all the walking today!
Early evening we headed out for dinner to L’Antica Birreria Peroni, not far past the Trevi Fountain. After walking round quite a few streets (even with a map in hand) we finally found it. The meal wasn’t bad, but not as nice as the night before. Between us we had an appetiser sampler (can’t say we particularly enjoyed this), two pasta dishes, one salad, one bratwurst meal, and a litre of house white. The total was 41 Euros, service included. A pretty good price, and a reasonable meal.
Afterwards we walked down towards the Piazza Venezia for a look at the Vittoriano Monument and then back towards the Pantheon. On finding the ‘Pantheon’ I was disappointed that it was a) closed, b) small and c) standing in a very small plaza, not what I expected at all. Still, we took a couple of photos of the outside, and headed back. (Three days later, when we found the actual Pantheon, we realised that we’d been looking at something entirely different and more mundane. I still don’t know what it was, but it was likely the back of a church somewhere! We did feel a tad stupid!).
On the way back we stopped off somewhere near the Trevi Fountain for the obligatory gelato, sitting on a bench outside the shop watching the world go by for 15 minutes before heading back to the apartment at the end of another glorious day in Rome.
