Rome Nov 17
The Princeps (latin for "foremost") Boutique Hotel is a small one on the fourth floor. Here is the view from our room window, it's the backside of a basilica, the largest of 80 in the city dedicated to the Virgin Mary (over 900 churches in the city!). There were long lines to get into the basilica for Sunday night mass, each person had to pass thru security.
It serves a fine breakfast, not nearly the magnitude of the Neptune, but very satisfying: bacon and eggs, toast, cereals, pastries, a cappuccino machine, etc.
Holy cannoli!
We used a hop-on hop-off bus to get to our Vatican City tour. The bus started running at 9am, and the tour was at 11am, though they said we must be there at 10:30...repetitive texts nagged me about that fact. The bus had to make 5 official stops before the Vatican City stop, so we felt good about making it on time. Unfortunately, the traffic is Rome is horrendous, and we got to the required stop at 10:05. We had undecipherable directions from the bus stop to the tour office, so had to rely on Google Maps, which had screwed us up last night. We walked fast, and got to the tour office at 10:30 on the button, and it turned out they wanted us there then for their convenience, since they had insufficient staff to process ticket vouchers. Anyway, the tour started at 11:00 as advertised.
I'll start with a general opinion about the tour. The Italian tour guide was pleasant enough, but she talked fast and in semi-poor English, so we missed a lot of content that we really wanted to hear. The low-light of the tour was us getting separated from the group, so we hurried thru many parts of the Vatican Museum without time to look at anything. To add to the fun, there are all sorts of uneven flooring to trip on and marble staircases without handrails, so a lot of our time was spent looking downward. It sucks getting old! We finally caught up with them in the Sistine Chapel, with our time cut short there due to our late arrival, and we let her know we were not pleased.
The crowd was a little overbearing, it was difficult staying with your tour group with all the other tour groups competing for space. I like to read the descriptions of what I am looking at in museums, and there was no time allowed for that. I would hate to see this place in high season (summer).
We first went thru the Vatican Museum. Our tour included skip-the-line admission, otherwise the admission line was blocks long. Lots of security checks were done to get in. Here is our tour guide in action: Despite not hearing much of the guide's narrative, it was clear that Michelangelo had a lot to do with much if not most of the contents of the museum. In addition, quite a bit of the items displayed were taken from the Colosseum and the Pantheon
Tapestries (Jesus' eyes follow you as you walk by):
This ceiling appears to be 3D but is totally flat painted on the ceiling
Statues (this is one of Artemus, mentioned in my Ephesus blog):
Elaborate domes:
We finally found our tour group in the Sistine Chapel (no photos are allowed, I am a criminal!)
We passed by the brightly-dressed Swiss Guard
and went to St Peter's Basilica
From Wikipedia: The basilica was initially planned in the 15th century by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the ageing Old St. Peter's Basilica, which was built in the fourth century by Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626. Saint Peter's is one of the most renowned works of Italian Renaissance architecture[4] and is the largest church in the world by interior measure. Saint Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world",[5] and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom.
Catholic tradition holds that the basilica is the burial site of Saint Peter, chief among Jesus's apostles and also the first Bishop of Rome (Pope). Saint Peter's tomb is directly below the high altar of the basilica, also known as the Altar of the Confession.[7] For this reason, many popes, cardinals and bishops have been interred at St. Peter's since the Early Christian period. Contrary to popular misconception, it is not a cathedral because it is not the seat of a bishop.[
The front of the basilica (basilica: in Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum)
and the square in front where the Pope says mass
Inside the Basilica, spectacular things:
Dead popes:
On the way back, we crossed the Tiber River and saw the Castle of St Angelo (originally built as Emperor Hadrian's mausoleum in the 2nd century AD. It later became a papal fortress, known for its military importance and connection to the Vatican. Today, it is a museum and a popular tourist attraction located on the river's right bank, easily accessible from the Ponte Sant'Angelo)
We took the bus back to the hotel, and it was dinner time. Diane wanted something unconventional
but we went with the Pomodorum ("tomato") restaurant near the hotel for some "real" Italian food
I had the lasagna
Diane had the cannelloni
It was all fresh and quite good! The lasagna was even better than Costco's frozen equivalent!
Sorry if the Vatican City account seems somewhat negative, but we were very displeased with the tour services and we were somewhat panicked when we were detached from our group and we didn't know what to do...we didn't know if the group was ahead of us or behind us, and the guide hadn't done her job of keeping the group together.
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