We began early, leaving around 8 am and walking down toward the Coliseum, looking for a little cafe for breakfast, and stopped at one for coffee and pastries. The coffee here is pretty much straight espresso, which for me as not really a coffee-drinker is a little daunting, but the coffee in Italy is so good that even I can enjoy it without milk/sugar added. After breakfast, we continued to the ancient center of town and toured the Coliseum, the old Roman Forum, and the Palatine Hill. Having studied Latin through high school and a little in college, these were sites I knew a lot about, but had only pictured from above, i.e. looking at a map. Though it's difficult to imagine the present ruins as they would have looked 2,000 years ago, being there among them really helped me picture the layout and look of ancient Rome. Very very cool. Even more than Florence, Rome is an obvious blend of the many time periods it has been a major city, with the old ruins surrounded by the medieval and Renaissance surrounded by the new.
Around lunchtime, we walked up through the city to the Pantheon, stopping along the way at a streetside fruit stand to buy plums. At the Pantheon, Jeannie pointed out a part of the domed ceiling where she thought Brubelleschi had cut into the structure to examine it while designing his dome for the Duomo in Florence. As with the whole city, this church/temple was built for one purpose, then re-established for another, so today it shows the influences of both. We had lunch at a little restaurant across the square from the Pantheon, filled our water bottle at the public fountain there, then hailed a taxi ...
To Vatican City. We pulled up in the taxi right in front of St. Peter's Square and, though there were people everywhere, it was nowhere close to filled as it would be for major events. The Pope gave his weekly address this morning, but we didn't get there until a little before 2 pm, and the lines to get into the museum were relatively short. I was surprised to find that the museum went far beyond Vatican/Christian history, with displays on Egypt and Greece, as well as art and statues. We wandered around for a while, trying to follow signs to the Sistine Chapel, which wasn't as well labeled as it could have been, and it took us a couple tries to finally get in the right direction, which led us through a maze of halls and rooms, many showing Raphael's work. And then the Sistine Chapel. Much bigger than I thought, as I was expecting a painted dome, like the inside of a Brunelleschi, so a long, vaulted ceiling coming down along the walls was much more impressive than I'd imagined! Again, as with almost all of the cathedrals/chapels we've visited, people proved that they don't understand the meanings of the words "silence" and "respect."
From the Chapel we tagged along with a tour group and took the shortcut connecting it with St. Peter's Basilica, the biggest church in the world! Same general layout as the cathedrals in Florence and Pisa, but massive: Florence's Duomo is 500 feet long; St. Peter's is 730. They actually have the floor marked with where other major churches measure up to. Most impressive for me though I think was that all of the paintings in the church are actually mosaics, but I couldn't see that until Jeannie told me and I looked close! Then we took a taxi back across the river to the Piazza Navona, got gelato at a place called Nice Ice, and walked back to the hotel to rest our feet.
After seeing Rome in 9 hours, we wanted to take the evening easy, but went out again for dinner, aiming for a Rick Steves recommendation, but after menu-browsing, went with a nice little place below ground level. One last time for old time's sake, we ordered our favorites: bruschetta, pasta, tiramisu, with wine. And our waiter was great: smiling and making jokes about his English. Then we went back to the hotel to rest ... long travel day tomorrow!
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