Rome, Day Two:

We got up (not very early) this morning and headed for a cafe down the street. We walked in and immediate deer in the headlights, with a ton of people, lots of loud Italian being spoken, and everyone in a rush. It finally felt like I was traveling: I was uncomfortable. Thank goodness! People weren’t speaking my language, I had no idea what was going on, and I was pretty much a giant inconvenience in these people’s day. You don’t usually get that in heavily tourist-centric areas like this, where almost everyone speaks English. While it was awkward, I was glad to finally feel like the foreigner that I am. I don’t enjoy being the inconvenience at all, and I wish I was fluent in every language and culture of every country I visit. But I’m not, and it forces you to rely on others goodwill, experience being the stranger, and learn something new.

We stepped to the side and let the rush of people get past us, and the staff let us know what to do after that. One thing about Italian cafes: you don’t sit down unless you pay extra. You just stand at the counter, down your exquisitely good espresso there, and leave. And don’t wait for an obvious spot at the counter either — squeeze in there and make yourself a spot.

We took the Metro from our place to Vatican City and started walking. First up: St. Peter’s Basilica.

As soon as you get out of the station, you get continually shouted at by people desperate to spare you a long line, give you a tour, and take loads of your money. Sometimes they accept the fact that you ignore them and keep walking, and sometimes they get extraordinarily bold and follow you into the line and keep talking about how you can avoid this line, despite the fact that you have yet to make eye contact or acknowledge them in any way. And to be fair, they’re right: the lines really are long. We got to the square, found the end of the snaking line into the Basilica, and got into the building about 45 minutes later.

(One note on the rules on dress code for the Basilica: the only one that was strictly strictly enforced was for every woman to “cover your shoulders.” I had on a sleeveless dress and brought a sweater for this reason alone. Lots of men in suits standing at the end of a very long line enforce this, and if you don’t have some way to cover your shoulders, you’re not allowed into the building. It’s unfortunate for anyone who didn’t do the research before arriving there, and their best bet is to buy a scarf off of the many street merchants wandering the square and then get back in line. Don’t worry about the shoe guidelines, those don’t matter, just wear something.)

The first thing Travis wanted to do here was to climb the dome.

There are over 500 steps to reach the exterior balcony around the cupola, and these are not easy steps. Much of the staircase is spiral and narrow, with occasionally tilting walls (you are walking up into a dome, after all.) We paid two euro more to take the elevator one-third of the way up, which I felt was well worth it. 🙂 We only had 320 steps to go post-elevator.

The views from the top of the dome are truly fantastic, and if you can get a spot in the crush of people, provide some great photo-taking opportunities.

Climbing down from the dome is more fun as going up, in the sense that it’s less strenuous. It is still tight and spiral-y with little air circulation, making the landing you reach about 2/3s of the way down a blissful gift.

Once we got the rest of the way down, we walked around the Basilica. Every bit as big and shiny as you’ve seen in pictures. I liked the Greek letters on this section.

We grabbed a quick lunch and headed over to the Sistine Chapel. This was another epic line, where assertive, nay, aggressive tour guides remind you constantly that you could skip this if you’d only join their tour group. But really, people, please do not join the tour groups. Yes, you can get ahead of this line, but you will not be able to move at your own pace and you will be assimilated into a bottlenecking amoeba. Just say no and be firm, like the guys in front of us who told a guide, “Nope, we love lines. We’re staying here. In fact, when we’re done with this line, we’re going back to the beginning, because we love lines that much. Thanks though.”

Despite the lines, the Sistine Chapel was incredibly rewarding. Yes, the crush of people is constant, and you will rarely walk at a normal pace. Picture taking can get challenging, and that’s a shame because there is SO MUCH STUFF that is worthy of a long gaze and some googling to get the history of it. So many Greek and Roman artifacts, even Egyptian things as well. I got a few shots of sisters past: one whose name fails me now, Athena, and Sappho.

And then of Laocoon and His Sons, because I turned around and it was just there, like no big deal:

And it’s all like that. You shuffle into a room with a constantly but slowly moving group of people, happen to glance to your right or left, and it’s like oh, that’s a thing, that’s a famous and important thing and it’s RIGHT THERE.

Eventually, this human river leads to the Sistine Chapel, where thou shalt not take pictures and thou shalt not speak. Both of these rules make a ton of sense. For one, your pictures of the Sistine chapel will not do it justice or capture that moment in any way. It’s too massive. Second, the acoustics in that room require everyone to remain silent. If everyone spoke, it’d be deafening. The Italian police enforce this rule by shouting “SILENZIO” into a booming PA system every few minutes. Ironic, but it is effective, and given that it’s Italy, it’s necessary.

Do not skip the Sistine Chapel. Take your time there, too. There are so many fascinating things, some poorly labeled which adds to the experience of wandering through this massive collection.

There are also things that look remarkably like the Death Star in the middle of the museum courtyard.

And don’t forget the spiral staircase you take to leave the building, gorgeous in its own right.

Eventually we left the Vatican Museum and headed over to the Spanish Steps area, or as Travis calls it, the “I’m So Fancy street.” This is the shopping district of the extremely wealthy, with names like Prada, Bvlgari, and Gucci lining the sidewalks. The steps themselves were fine, but not that interesting since the fountain was boarded up for renovation, so we headed down Fancy Street to the Piazza del Popolo for some people watching and sorbet. There’s an obelisk there from Egypt that was originally crafted under Sety I and Rameses II, and as far as I can tell, it ended up in Rome simply because Augustus liked it and took it. When you’re ruling the known world, you can do that.

The obelisk stands in the middle of the plaza, in between between two visually interesting halves:

Here it looks mostly like shadows from the sun, and that’s a part of it, but the buildings on the right are actually darker than the ones on the left. Little bit of Wes Anderson symmetry here.

After that, we grabbed dinner, our first proper meal since landing yesterday. Lovely outdoor spot, good wine, good food, greatest company, and a dog on the other side of the street that kept leaning out the window and barking at the people playing music on the street.