We woke up Saturday morning refreshed, ready to attack the city. The first stop: St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum.The size, beauty, and history of St. Peter’s takes your breath away. You can’t imagine how powerfully large it is until you see it. We went through it slowly, spending at least an hour inside, but we still missed a lot. Our subsequent visits showed us more each time.
We went through the gift shop, but didn’t pick anything up. (Remember that part.) The lines at the Vatican Museum were ridiculous, and we wanted to take more than just an hour to go through it (it closes at 1:45 on Saturdays), so we hit the road for other attractions.
We walked across the Tiber to the historical district (as if there’s a “new” part of Rome) over to the Corso Vittorio Emmanuel. We stopped first at the Pantheon, then the Spanish Steps, Cappuccin Crypts, and the Colosseum.
The Colosseum is bigger than it seems on TV and the movies, and not nearly as well-kept as you’d imagine. They’re working on restoring it, but they’re not working very hard, and I bet you a lira you won’t find a workman in anybody’s photos of this classic venue.
We walked around for a while, got some dinner (pizza again), and caught the Metro for home. Both of us hadn’t slept well in the days before this vacation, so we hit the sack early again.
Sunday morning, we headed down to St. Peter’s again, intent on seeing the Pope bless the crowds at noon as he usually does. We got there early, anticipating a crowd, and found ourselves in the Basilica at 10:15, just in time for mass at 10:30. To give you some idea of how big St. Peter’s is, the mass only takes about a third of the church, and even during mass, group tours are wandering through, seeing the sights.
After listening to mass for fifteen minutes (the crowds made it impossible to see), we made visit #2 to the Vatican gift shop, but it was closed on Sundays, as is the museum. We went outside instead and got a spot for the Pope’s blessing at noon. By the time the Pope poked his head out of his window, the square in front of St. Peter’s was packed.
I will never, ever forget the sound of Pope John Paul II’s voice. When he started talking, everyone went dead quiet. His health isn’t the greatest anymore, and you could tell he has to work at it. His voice warbled, and he sounded like, well, an old man. Listening to him talk, it occurred to me that he’s simply the holiest fella on the planet. The things he’s seen, the places he’s been, the knowledge he must hold, all of it is overwhelming. Seeing him in person was very, very humbling.
He didn’t speak a word of English, which didn’t surprise me, because the Europeans outnumbered the rest of us. He spoke for ten or fifteen minutes in Italian, blessing the various groups in the crowd who made their presence known with signs or shouts. Everybody loved him. He blessed the whole crowd, and then went back inside.
We originally wanted to go shopping in the local market at Piazza Vittorio Emmanuel II, but it turned out to be closed on Sundays. Instead, we went on to the Forum. There’s not a lot you can say about the ruins - either you love ‘em or you don’t, and I don’t think it set either of us on fire. There’s much more impressive sights in Rome that are still intact. Even with the before & after books that show you what you’re looking at, it’s hard to imagine exactly what this felt like in its glory.
We took a nap, and then went out for our first real dinner around 10pm. We ended up at Capitello in the Termini area, a little place below ground level. Not exactly glorious, but alright. You just can’t expect to eat when you want to in Rome and get a good meal. You can either eat great on their schedule, or eat decently on your own schedule.
