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I’ve been asked various people whether we saw different spots in Rome, some of which I’ve said, “No.”  At this point in our trip, we had been several places in England, then Scotland and Venice.  With a mixed group of four, we discovered that it was best to slow down and not look at so much.  When you do that, you make choices not to see something.  I don’t know how much different it would have made.  I liked visiting Rome, and I would go back, but it wouldn’t bother me if I never made it back either.  Some places seem like they are worth going back to.

Two places we didn’t see that come to mind are the Mamertine Prison and the catacombs.  We had a thought that we might do the latter attached to a bike ride, but I found on our last day that we couldn’t fly from Rome to Paris.  There was an air traffic control strike that weekend.  This definitely throws a wrench into a European tour, trying to figure out how now to get from Rome to Paris, when I had never been overseas until this trip.  Because of that strike, everybody trying to get into Paris was being affected that weekend.  I’ll tell you later how that ended.

I didn’t mention in the last post that we ate at a restaurant in the neighborhood on Thursday night, June 14.  What we wanted was something authentic Italian that the locals liked.  This was Romolo e Remo, and it was good.  Everything we had in Italy, Venice and Rome, was good.  I liked it all, but nothing stood out above anything that I had in the United States.  I was ready to be impressed and wanted to like it better than anything ever.  It was all good.  I liked the pasta, the pizza, everything I had in Italy.  Nothing was bad.  You are in good hands with Italy for Italian food (as if you wouldn’t have known that anyway).  You don’t get any kind of chain food feel in Italian restaurants.  They seem like they care that you like what they’re doing and giving to you.

We pre-purchased tickets to the Vatican museum after the normal closing time, so we would enter at 7:15pm, and we planned Friday, June 15, around that.  The first day we had taken a heart-of-Rome walk and got only as far as Piazza Colonna, and we picked up where we left off, so that we would see the Trevi Fountain and then the Spanish steps before we made our way over the Tiber River by bus.

Rome is a city of many, many fountains and the Trevi fountain is considered the most famous of them all, designed by Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762.  It is gigantic and there is a huge crowd pressing against it.  No one can step into this fountain and the police presence is conspicuous.  Someone tried and the reaction from the authorities was instant.   One of the traditions is to throw a coin into this found over the shoulder.  It’s supposed to mean that you’ll return to Rome.  The coins are collected and used for poor people during the year.

From there we walked to the Spanish steps and made our way all the way from bottom to top and back to bottom.  The top gives a very nice view of the city of Rome.  In the distance, you see the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica.

From the Spanish steps, we caught a bus to get near the Vatican, which is surrounded by a wall.  First, our plan was a late lunch or early supper someplace close to Vatican City.  It wasn’t crowded there that time of day and, as we walked and looked, a lot of them looked about the same.  One of the regular practices was for someone to look at the rating on tripadvisor, and again, they were all about the same.  We stopped to eat outdoor on the sidewalk at Trattoria Pizzeria La Caravella di Magistri Luigi.  Yes, all those words.

We had time after eating to go into St. Peter’s Basilica.  We went into a lot of Cathedrals on this trip.  In many ways, they all look the same.  The most massive, as one might understand, was St. Peter’s, which is in essence the headquarters for Roman Catholicism.  It’s the biggest in the world.  It is a massive piece of architecture, the square itself with gigantic columns done by the same person who did a lot of the major buildings we saw on the trip, Bernini.  The line was very long, but it moved.  It’s free to go in and they keep you moving.  In the square, you see a giant statue of Peter, which, of course, no one knows how he looked.

Besides the immensity of St. Peter’s outside and in, one work of art inside is well known.  When you walk in, just to the right is the Pieta, by Michelangelo.  Of course, statues of Jesus are violations of the second commandment and then all of Europe, especially Rome, elevates Mary to great heights.  Despite that, I understand why the piece is famous and moving.  Looking at it, one feels sorry for Mary, and in all the sermons I’ve preached about Mary in the various gospel accounts, especially Luke, I feel great pain for Jesus’ mother.  Michelangelo captures something there.

We walked through quickly, having seen enough, and then made our way around to the entrance to the Vatican Museum.  You may be asking why someone would go there?  We wanted to see the Sistine chapel among other aspects of it.  Our entrance came with a tour.  She was Italian and speaking English, but difficult to understand.  Pictures could be taken up to a certain point, including the Vatican area.

However, once you get into the museum, you can’t take pictures anymore.  Some of the art in the museum is the greatest.  As soon as you walk in, the spiral staircase is impressive.  In the papal apartments are famous large frescoes of Raphael and Michelangelo, among the former’s The School of Athens is impressive.   Before you walk into the Sistine chapel, you are warned not to talk and not to take pictures.  People talk and take pictures.  The guards look angry, because they said, don’t talk and people do it anyway.  It’s normal for tourists.

I stood and just stared everywhere in the Sistine chapel.  What struck me was that the renowned ceiling was lower then I imagined and the whole room was smaller.  It was still very large and high, but just smaller and lower than I imagined.  Everywhere was something amazing.  Again, I do think that God and Adam is blasphemous.  The story of the Bible is all over the room and done in an amazing way.  I wish I could have sat there with a guide and got a four hour explanation without all the people in there.  I was happy to have seen it.

We left there and took various busses to get home.  We found ourselves as we did a few times, waiting next to Vittorio Emanuele II Monument, which is lit up at night, very impressive.  We ate some gelato, caught our bus, and rode close to home.  We packed.  We would leave early the next day, Saturday, June 16.