Our B&B room was comfy and quirky with lots of framed old posters covering the bedroom walls. The shower and toilet was attached to the room. Although it called itself a bed & breakfast establishment, the breakfast was pathetic. Each person was entitled to only one package of pathetic pastry and one boxed peach drink, served in a basket on top of a small table in the room. They provided expresso as well with coffee-maker in the common room but we're not coffee drinkers. Italy must be heaven for coffee-lovers as their standard cup is expresso. Even the cups provided were all small, fit for one expresso shot, I guess. We used the plastic cup to drink our orange juice, hahaha..
Had lasagna and pizza for lunch at one cafe near the hotel. Quite nice but not hot enough. Walked through Vittorio Emanuele II park and then all the way to Colosseo. Queued for tickets at Colosseo and went in to explore and took photos of the ruin for about an hour. The ruin was big, it was majestic, and to think about how the Romans were really using this building...
Continued our visit to Palatino, it was included in the tickets we purchased in Colosseo. A tip worth remembering: it's better to purchase your tickets at Palatino as the queue there is much much shorter than the one in Colosseo. Tickets are valid for both attractions. Only cash is accepted.
Palatino was a huge ancient ruin site, all hilly and dusty. We went in to the small Museo Palatino as well, went pass Foro Romana, Casa de Agustin and all other ruins. It was great and I stood in awe at the beginning. But after a while I got tired of seeing ruins. It was ruins everywhere. Took a lot of nice shoots, though.
On our way back we went pass Campidoglio and Piazza Venezia. Gigantic monuments and fountains! Difficult to capture in photos unless we stood far enough. Returned to B&B to rest our sore feet.
The first time we went to Vatican City, we actually planned to arrive early to avoid the queue at Vatican Museum. But we woke up late and so we just rushed for Sunday mass at St.Peter Basilica. We thought it would be a normal mass in one section of the basilica at 9am. We got in after the long queue at 5 minutes before 9am. The huge number of crowd was seated in the nave, instead of the chapel, and the mass didn't start until 10am. The surprising explanation: the Pentecost Sunday mass was celebrated by the Pope! We were like.. wow, we're so lucky, we didn't even know he's gonna be in Vatican that Sunday.
We waited for more than one hour. And the mass did not start on time, it was late by a few minutes. And the entourage was super long.. altar boys, cardinals, and I didn't know who else, security, maybe. By the time the entourage started marching in, the congregation was already standing on their toes, on top of their chairs, anticipating to see the Pope, all busy holding on to their cameras and handycams! Wah, it was really the sight of a lifetime. And finally he entered, waving to the congregation, people clapping, snapping photos and taking videos. He's more than a celebrity.
Mass booklets were distributed at the entrance, and I took mine home as souvenir :) The mass was basically in Latin, but the readings and prayers were in various languages: English, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, etc. Everything had its translation to Italian. The sermon was delivered in Latin. The hymns were in Latin as well. Fortunately we had our binoculars to watch closely what happened in the altar.
After the mass we had a brief tour in St. Peter Basilica, as the security guards were busy chasing people out from the church, regardless who you are. They chased everybody out, lay men, priests and sisters alike. Once outside, we appreciated the opportunity to attend the mass seated inside the basilica. So many other people were standing outside the nave, and a lot more were gathered in St. Peter Square, waiting for the public blessing given at noon from his window in the papal study. It was super crowded.
After mass, we had sandwiches and gelato for lunch at a nearby cafe, then continued our Rome city tour. Our route: Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) - Trinita Dei Monti - Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain) - Colonna Tower - Basilica S. Ignazio - Pantheon/Basilica S. Maria Ad Martyrees - Chiesa S. Luigi Dei Francesi - Piazza Navona - Basilica S. Andrea Della Valle - Basilica di S. Maria Maggiore.
Spanish Step, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and Pantheon were really, really full of people. Maybe it's because it was Sunday.
After a while, all churches started to look similar to me. Most of them had domes, shaped like a cross, had detailed relief on the walls and pillars, had small fancy chapels on its left and right wing, choir seats were normally in front of the altar, long candles placed on the altar. The church that's different was Pantheon (Basilica S. Maria Ad Martyrees), due to its circular shape. Some churches have flat ceilings instead of domes, like S. Maria Maggiore, S. John Lateran and S. Paul Basilica.
All churches in Italy were with free entrance policy, and photograph taking without flash was allowed, with one exception of S. Pietro church in Venice which imposed €3 per entry.
On our last day in Rome, we went back to Vatican City. Started our day early by waking up at 6am and started queueing in front of the closed Vatican Museum entrance at 7.30am. And how the queue grew. It was drizzling so I had to put on the poncho. Spent the time by playing Sudoku found in the free newspaper distributed around town. It looked like Sudoku in a free newspaper was everywhere, it did help to kill the time.
The Vatican Museum was opened at 8.30am. We spent a total of 4 hrs in there, including a visit to Sistine Chapel and lunch at its cafe. Sistine Chapel was impressively decorated with paintings by Michaelangelo and some other artists, the most famous painting was called 'the last judgement'.
However, the visit was less enjoyable due to the crowd, and some areas were closed as well, either for renovation or clean-up. Entry was expensive at €14 and audio guide was at €6. Horrible. Phototaking was allowed in the museum everywhere, except in the Sistine Chapel. But the chapel was so crowded people could just snap some photos silently. Some times the guards made some 'sssshhh' noise an announced that phototaking was not allowed. No peace at all.
At the end of our visit, we bought postcards and stamps from the Vatican post office and sent it to ourselves! haha..
The stairs leading to the museum exit was special. It's shaped in double helix and it has the images of the Popes carved on it.
Next, we went in to Vatican City again from St. Peter Square (that's the only entrance), queued up, scanned our bags (queue was long as scan was required) and went to the Papal Tombs. They had the tombs of St. Peter and the late Pope John Paul II in there. We skipped the Cupola due to its long queue.
Then we went back to Rome city, visited Basilica of St. John Lateran and Basilica of St. Paul. St. Paul Basilica was grand. It had the tomb of St. Paul underneath the altar. The church's inner wall was painted with portrait of the Popes and images from life of St. Paul. Marble statues of the 12 apostles were also displayed behind the huge marble pillars that surrounded the nave. A big statue of St. Paul was put at the garden near the church entrance. The church looked a bit different since it has a fence and colorful paintings on top of the entrance which could be seen from outside.
Went to Terme di Caracalla just to find it closed early on Mondays. Took a few shoots, though. It looked much more ancient and ruined than the bath in Bath, England. We were too lazy to walk to Circo Massimo, although initially planned to do so, so we headed back to metro station and stopped by Roma Termini for dinner. Had spinach risotto and strawberry pie.
Three words for Rome: ancient, majestic, historical
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