Beauty of the Vatican

Our second day in Rome was primarily focused on the Vatican. We had a tour set up with Rich at 1:00pm, so we did have the morning to walk around and explore a bit. We decided to stroll into the Piazza Venezia area first.

The National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II (or The Big White Building as Heather liked to call it) was the first stop. A lot of stairs leads to a small museum up top, which wasn't really that interesting. The bigger attraction was the view and the building itself.


Once leaving the Monument, we made a stop into Santa Maria in Aracoeli. It's a very beautiful church; fairly plain on the outside, but gorgeous on the inside (as you can see below). It was set up for a wedding, and we saw the guests arriving as we were there.


After having our fill of the Piazza Venezia area, we started our walk to the Vatican. We walked along the Tiber River for a while, then jumped onto Via Giulia (one of the recommended walks in one of our guide books). There wasn't a whole lot to see here, although it was somewhat pretty and peaceful.


We crossed the Ponte Vittorio and decided to check out Castel Sant'Angelo, a former stronghold built to protect Vatican City. To our pleasant surprise, the tickets were free for the weekend. It was worth the time; the "museum" parts were fairly interesting, the view on top was very good, and just walking around the castle was fun.


We grabbed a gelato at a place called Old Bridge (cheap, very good gelato close to the Vatican Museums) then sat down for lunch at Ristaurante Paolo because that was where we were to meet our tour guide. It's a classic tourist trap restaurant; someone outside waving people in, pricey, and not-sure-if-it's-really-from-scratch food. Decent, but not recommended. We expected our guide to be there (since a lot of other tour groups also meet there) but Heather ended up spotting her across the street, so we were actually a few minutes late again, even though we were in the right spot. Oh well.

The good part was that another couple was also touring with us, which brought our cost down a bit. Our guide wasn't Rich, but an associate of his. She was alright, but we had a better time with Rich. Our tour started in the Vatican Museums - I won't go into any details - if you're going to Rome, you'll be going here - but here's a few pictures:





A few of the rooms are boring, but quite a few are pretty remarkable. At the end, you finally get to the Sistine Chapel. The chapel is just incredible to take in; it's really amazing to think of how Michelangelo did it.

After leaving the museums we moved into St. Peter's Basilica. The grandness of the building is awesome, but I found it to be almost too big; it felt less intimate than a lot of other places. I guess it just didn't have the effect on me that I was expecting.


St. Peter's Square, however, is something to see. It's easy to imagine thousands of people crowding this square to see a glimpse of the Pope.


My recommendation - don't take a guided tour of the Vatican. You'll miss out on some information by doing so, but I think it'd be better to walk at your own pace and soak everything up. Take a good guide book and you'll be fine.

After leaving Vatican City, we took a walk to Piazza del Popolo, a Roman square which is near the northern gate of the Aurelian Walls. There happened to be a concert going on in the square - some sort of MTV-sponsored free summer concert - but we didn't recognize any of the bands, so we didn't stick around too long.


We stopped by a cafe and grabbed a panini and coffee. After that, we walked by the Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps (each very cool to see at night) before heading back to the hotel.

To see all of our Rome pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.