We woke up at 8:30 am on our second day in Rome and relaxed in bed for half an hour before going down for breakfast. As good as the scrambled eggs and omelettes have been so far on this trip, we wanted to try something without eggs and were glad that our hotel had pancakes. They weren't that special but we enjoyed them nonetheless. We also had cereal and excellent lattes once again. Along with pizza and gelato, coffee is another of those Italian specialities that is always top notch. After breakfast, we came back to our room and lazed for another hour or so before getting ready and heading out around 12:30 pm.
We walked to the Republica square and along the way stopped for some window shopping. Then we took the metro to the station closest to Vatican City. After getting off the train, we had to walk for about 15 minutes and then we arrived in Saint Peter's square, the giant "square" next to the largest and the most important church in Christianity, Saint Peter's Basilica. On our last trip, we had missed out on visiting the church but not this time!
The square is actually in the shape of an oval that inclines downwards towards the center like a basin. The shape is perfect for fitting a giant cross along the major axes in which case the church would be at the tip of the cross. The sides of the oval next to the church are flanked by the Columnade built by Bernini. It's a hallway with some 200+ giant 50 meter tall columns supporting a roof. There's an Egyptian obelisk in the middle of the oval. You can also see the pope's apartment and the Sistine Chapel building with the chimney that's used to signal papal election results. To get into the church, we first had to wait in long lines for security check and dress code assessment - no shorts or bare shoulders allowed inside the church.
Once you enter the church, you are stunned by the sheer magnitude and size of the interior. The main nave is lined with statues and is over 200 meters in length. It's so high and so wide that when pigeons accidentally fly inside, they don't realize that they're inside a building! The dome above the main alter rivals the dome of the Pantheon but is much higher. Behind the alter is a stained glass window designed by Bernini. It's designed in a way that during mass, it lets sunlight in such that it seems that golden light is illuminating the throne of Saint Peter which is a chair. Above the main alter is a giant bronze canopy that helps draw your attention to the altar which would otherwise be lost in the humongous space. Beneath the main altar, Saint Peter's bones are buried in the dungeon. Saint Peter was one of the apostles of Jesus whom Jesus chose to be the head of the church so he became the first pope of Christianity. We also saw the very well preserved body of a recent pope in a glass crypt, a bronze statue of Saint Peter where people line up to kiss the feet for good luck and statue of Michelangelo's Pieta. Pieta is a scene in which Mary holds the body of Jesus after his crucifixion. Michelangelo's genius shines through the Pieta once again - the statue captures the sadness of the moment and Jesus' body looks very real. The statue incorporates many subtle elements like Jesus' body appearing heavier and appearing to slide down Mary's robe, Mary appearing very young to emphasize her innocence and despite Jesus being the size of a grown man, he appears childlike in comparison to the larger than life Mary.
After touring the magnificent basilica, we stopped at the only post office in Vatican City and thought it would be funny to post ourselves a postcard! Hopefully it'll reach us after we're back in Calgary. The Vatican City is the smallest country in the world that's completely surrounded on all sides by the city of Rome. It has its own security force comprising Swiss mercenaries with their colorful and rather ridiculous looking uniforms, its own passport, a post office that we visited and even its own radio station. In other worldly matters like currency, it relies on its neighbors and uses the Euro as its currency.
We were hungry after our trip to Saint Peter's so we decided to have lunch. Vatican City may be the smallest country but it's also possibly the only country in the world without any restaurants! We started walking along the boulevard that Mussolini had built that enters into the oval of Saint Peter's square. Learning from our past experiences, we generally try to avoid restaurants near touristy attractions since they tend to be overpriced and sub-par establishments that want to make a quick buck from customers that are never going to return. This was an exception as we were famished so knowing well that we were walking into a rip-off, we still decided to take our chance. We ordered the safest possible options - bruschetta and a marinara pizza (just tomato sauce and oregano). The pizza was decent but the bruschetta was not that great. There was a pretty high mandatory service charge of 17% and then our server decided to "keep" the change to make it more like a 25% service charge. It's this side of Rome that's ticks us off but the amazing history somewhat balances it out.
After lunch, we continued walking along Mussolini's boulevard and arrived at Castel Sant'Angelo. It's a round castle building next to the river Tiber. We walked over the bridge that connects the castle to the other side of the river and is lined with statues on both sides. The view from the bridge is interesting. You can see other bridges, green trees, colorful buildings, the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica, Castel Sant'Angelo and lots of tourists.
After that we decided to walk to Piazza Navona that shouldn't have been too far but in trying to take a shortcut using the inner streets, we ended up getting a little lost but finally reached the Piazza. It's a lively square with a famous statue by who else but Bernini. We had visited this square on our last trip as well and we liked it so much that we went back. We sat at a bench to enjoy dance performances by a Michael Jackson look alike and then headed to a cafe on the square that was recommended in our guidebook. The cafe Tre Scalini was established in the 1940s and used to be a hot spot during the 1950s where Hollywood celebrities used to hang out. Its signature dessert is called Il Tartufo and is dark chocolate gelato ball with a cherry inside, coated with nuts and a dollop of whipped cream and a wafer on top. Samia tried the Il Tartufo whereas I got Tiramisu.
After the dessert break, we walked to our favorite ancient site in Rome - the Pantheon. The place is absolutely marvelous and despite coming here a second time, we couldn't help but marvel at the enormity of the building and how the ancient Romans must've undertaken the monumental construction project two thousand years ago. We sat inside the Pantheon for about half an hour, marveling at the genius of the ancients and then headed out when it closed at 7:30 pm. We've been to the Pantheon twice now and are quite sure that we wouldn't mind coming back again!
We had shortlisted a couple of restaurants from our guidebook for dinner close to the Pantheon. One of them was fully booked but the other one was able to seat us. It turned out to be our best dining experience in Rome - that includes both visits! It wasn't fancy but the quality of food was amazing. For appetizer, we had bruschetta and the fried Napoli rice thing called suppli that we had discovered last night. For our main course, Samia had gnocchi with tomato sauce and I had casarecce pasta with spicy arrabiata sauce. For dessert, we shared a panna cotta. After dinner, we walked to another of our Rome favorites, the Trevi fountain. Then we took a cab back to our hotel and went to bed, ready for our final stop of Italy, the Naples area. We'll be staying in the town of Sorrento. Till the next update from the birthplace of pizza (and Italian mafia), take care!
We walked to the Republica square and along the way stopped for some window shopping. Then we took the metro to the station closest to Vatican City. After getting off the train, we had to walk for about 15 minutes and then we arrived in Saint Peter's square, the giant "square" next to the largest and the most important church in Christianity, Saint Peter's Basilica. On our last trip, we had missed out on visiting the church but not this time!
The square is actually in the shape of an oval that inclines downwards towards the center like a basin. The shape is perfect for fitting a giant cross along the major axes in which case the church would be at the tip of the cross. The sides of the oval next to the church are flanked by the Columnade built by Bernini. It's a hallway with some 200+ giant 50 meter tall columns supporting a roof. There's an Egyptian obelisk in the middle of the oval. You can also see the pope's apartment and the Sistine Chapel building with the chimney that's used to signal papal election results. To get into the church, we first had to wait in long lines for security check and dress code assessment - no shorts or bare shoulders allowed inside the church.
Once you enter the church, you are stunned by the sheer magnitude and size of the interior. The main nave is lined with statues and is over 200 meters in length. It's so high and so wide that when pigeons accidentally fly inside, they don't realize that they're inside a building! The dome above the main alter rivals the dome of the Pantheon but is much higher. Behind the alter is a stained glass window designed by Bernini. It's designed in a way that during mass, it lets sunlight in such that it seems that golden light is illuminating the throne of Saint Peter which is a chair. Above the main alter is a giant bronze canopy that helps draw your attention to the altar which would otherwise be lost in the humongous space. Beneath the main altar, Saint Peter's bones are buried in the dungeon. Saint Peter was one of the apostles of Jesus whom Jesus chose to be the head of the church so he became the first pope of Christianity. We also saw the very well preserved body of a recent pope in a glass crypt, a bronze statue of Saint Peter where people line up to kiss the feet for good luck and statue of Michelangelo's Pieta. Pieta is a scene in which Mary holds the body of Jesus after his crucifixion. Michelangelo's genius shines through the Pieta once again - the statue captures the sadness of the moment and Jesus' body looks very real. The statue incorporates many subtle elements like Jesus' body appearing heavier and appearing to slide down Mary's robe, Mary appearing very young to emphasize her innocence and despite Jesus being the size of a grown man, he appears childlike in comparison to the larger than life Mary.
After touring the magnificent basilica, we stopped at the only post office in Vatican City and thought it would be funny to post ourselves a postcard! Hopefully it'll reach us after we're back in Calgary. The Vatican City is the smallest country in the world that's completely surrounded on all sides by the city of Rome. It has its own security force comprising Swiss mercenaries with their colorful and rather ridiculous looking uniforms, its own passport, a post office that we visited and even its own radio station. In other worldly matters like currency, it relies on its neighbors and uses the Euro as its currency.
We were hungry after our trip to Saint Peter's so we decided to have lunch. Vatican City may be the smallest country but it's also possibly the only country in the world without any restaurants! We started walking along the boulevard that Mussolini had built that enters into the oval of Saint Peter's square. Learning from our past experiences, we generally try to avoid restaurants near touristy attractions since they tend to be overpriced and sub-par establishments that want to make a quick buck from customers that are never going to return. This was an exception as we were famished so knowing well that we were walking into a rip-off, we still decided to take our chance. We ordered the safest possible options - bruschetta and a marinara pizza (just tomato sauce and oregano). The pizza was decent but the bruschetta was not that great. There was a pretty high mandatory service charge of 17% and then our server decided to "keep" the change to make it more like a 25% service charge. It's this side of Rome that's ticks us off but the amazing history somewhat balances it out.
After lunch, we continued walking along Mussolini's boulevard and arrived at Castel Sant'Angelo. It's a round castle building next to the river Tiber. We walked over the bridge that connects the castle to the other side of the river and is lined with statues on both sides. The view from the bridge is interesting. You can see other bridges, green trees, colorful buildings, the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica, Castel Sant'Angelo and lots of tourists.
After that we decided to walk to Piazza Navona that shouldn't have been too far but in trying to take a shortcut using the inner streets, we ended up getting a little lost but finally reached the Piazza. It's a lively square with a famous statue by who else but Bernini. We had visited this square on our last trip as well and we liked it so much that we went back. We sat at a bench to enjoy dance performances by a Michael Jackson look alike and then headed to a cafe on the square that was recommended in our guidebook. The cafe Tre Scalini was established in the 1940s and used to be a hot spot during the 1950s where Hollywood celebrities used to hang out. Its signature dessert is called Il Tartufo and is dark chocolate gelato ball with a cherry inside, coated with nuts and a dollop of whipped cream and a wafer on top. Samia tried the Il Tartufo whereas I got Tiramisu.
After the dessert break, we walked to our favorite ancient site in Rome - the Pantheon. The place is absolutely marvelous and despite coming here a second time, we couldn't help but marvel at the enormity of the building and how the ancient Romans must've undertaken the monumental construction project two thousand years ago. We sat inside the Pantheon for about half an hour, marveling at the genius of the ancients and then headed out when it closed at 7:30 pm. We've been to the Pantheon twice now and are quite sure that we wouldn't mind coming back again!
We had shortlisted a couple of restaurants from our guidebook for dinner close to the Pantheon. One of them was fully booked but the other one was able to seat us. It turned out to be our best dining experience in Rome - that includes both visits! It wasn't fancy but the quality of food was amazing. For appetizer, we had bruschetta and the fried Napoli rice thing called suppli that we had discovered last night. For our main course, Samia had gnocchi with tomato sauce and I had casarecce pasta with spicy arrabiata sauce. For dessert, we shared a panna cotta. After dinner, we walked to another of our Rome favorites, the Trevi fountain. Then we took a cab back to our hotel and went to bed, ready for our final stop of Italy, the Naples area. We'll be staying in the town of Sorrento. Till the next update from the birthplace of pizza (and Italian mafia), take care!
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