Day 45 Rome
Saturday January 19th.
Up early – I have sore throat -Pam has been ill for a couple days and now I seem to have caught it.
First priority as we left the hotel we dropped off laundry about ¼ mile from our room. Then we walked back to the hotel and tried to call and make reservations for the Borghese museum as they only allow a small number of people in for a 2 hour visit. The ticket office was closed but we decided to walk over anyway.
We entered at 9:45 which only left 1:15 minutes and rather than paying for just the museum we purchased a 3 day Roma Pass that included entrance to another site and transport on buses and metro A and B for three days and discounts to other sites. It was 20 euro each.
The museum was beautiful and the audio tour was well worth it. If you remember to bring headphones 2 people can use a single audio guide as plugging in the headphones does not disable the internal speaker – as a matter of fact I will start carrying the splitter I brought. The wall and ceiling frescos were as amazing as the statues and paintings. Even 2 hours would not be enough.
After the museum we walked through the parks looking at the various statues and fountains – beautiful.
Next we deciphered the Metro and boarded the A train towards the Vatican. We found ourselves at St. Peters basilica and on the way in stumbled across a free tour in English. The guide gives a free tour and then tries to sign you up for a Vatican Museum tour. Steve from San Diego was the tour guide and he was very knowledgeable. He was 24 years old.
The basilica – again scale is deceiving – it is absolutely humongous. There are a lot of tricks of perspective – letters that are actually six feet tall near the ceiling etc. This is a must see site! It seems so strange that so much labor, money, artistic talent and beauty are invested in a religious site. Perhaps it is a by-product of faith being such an emotional endeavor? It just shows how rich the churches really are. Couldn’t they use that wealth to benefit humankind?
So the Vatican Museum and Sistine chapel. Hours are very funky very erratic. The Roma pass did not help. We bargained with the guide and got it down to 60 Euro. He guided us through the highlights and eventually to the Sistine Chapel. The actual chapel was a little anti-climatic – it’s hard to imagine Da’vinci spending ten years of his life laboring there. I guess if I were Catholic this would be more moving.
At the End of chapel there was still an hour remaining in the operating hours of the museum so we separated from the group which was heading to the crypts so we went back and got to see the statue hall even though it was closing. The guard lest us past the rope for a private 5 minute walk down the huge hall and back.
The museum is spectacular – so many things to see and the place is absolutely huge. Again I think that this was built by successive Popes as their palaces. So much wealth invested.
We had a very long walk back even with the Metro getting us back to the Barberrini station – we originally thought we could see the Trevi fountain but gave up on that plan as it was the wrong way and we were tired.
At one point during the hike heard a terrible crash and a scream behind us – a motorcycle with a man and woman collided with a car. Pam runs back and gives first aid. Not much she can do just tries talking to the girl and tells her to remain still. People are trying to move her out of the road to let traffic through– unbelievable. I wave down a Carbeneri – he does not speak English but he goes down the road. The police are not providing any first aid or even traffic guidance. A lot of onlookers – a nurse from Boston is dumbfounded - -it takes about 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. The girls name was Alexandra – we all hope she is fine.
We picked up the laundry and collapsed back at our room. We were tired and did not even eat dinner.
Up early – I have sore throat -Pam has been ill for a couple days and now I seem to have caught it.
First priority as we left the hotel we dropped off laundry about ¼ mile from our room. Then we walked back to the hotel and tried to call and make reservations for the Borghese museum as they only allow a small number of people in for a 2 hour visit. The ticket office was closed but we decided to walk over anyway.
We entered at 9:45 which only left 1:15 minutes and rather than paying for just the museum we purchased a 3 day Roma Pass that included entrance to another site and transport on buses and metro A and B for three days and discounts to other sites. It was 20 euro each.
The museum was beautiful and the audio tour was well worth it. If you remember to bring headphones 2 people can use a single audio guide as plugging in the headphones does not disable the internal speaker – as a matter of fact I will start carrying the splitter I brought. The wall and ceiling frescos were as amazing as the statues and paintings. Even 2 hours would not be enough.
After the museum we walked through the parks looking at the various statues and fountains – beautiful.
Next we deciphered the Metro and boarded the A train towards the Vatican. We found ourselves at St. Peters basilica and on the way in stumbled across a free tour in English. The guide gives a free tour and then tries to sign you up for a Vatican Museum tour. Steve from San Diego was the tour guide and he was very knowledgeable. He was 24 years old.
The basilica – again scale is deceiving – it is absolutely humongous. There are a lot of tricks of perspective – letters that are actually six feet tall near the ceiling etc. This is a must see site! It seems so strange that so much labor, money, artistic talent and beauty are invested in a religious site. Perhaps it is a by-product of faith being such an emotional endeavor? It just shows how rich the churches really are. Couldn’t they use that wealth to benefit humankind?
So the Vatican Museum and Sistine chapel. Hours are very funky very erratic. The Roma pass did not help. We bargained with the guide and got it down to 60 Euro. He guided us through the highlights and eventually to the Sistine Chapel. The actual chapel was a little anti-climatic – it’s hard to imagine Da’vinci spending ten years of his life laboring there. I guess if I were Catholic this would be more moving.
At the End of chapel there was still an hour remaining in the operating hours of the museum so we separated from the group which was heading to the crypts so we went back and got to see the statue hall even though it was closing. The guard lest us past the rope for a private 5 minute walk down the huge hall and back.
The museum is spectacular – so many things to see and the place is absolutely huge. Again I think that this was built by successive Popes as their palaces. So much wealth invested.
We had a very long walk back even with the Metro getting us back to the Barberrini station – we originally thought we could see the Trevi fountain but gave up on that plan as it was the wrong way and we were tired.
At one point during the hike heard a terrible crash and a scream behind us – a motorcycle with a man and woman collided with a car. Pam runs back and gives first aid. Not much she can do just tries talking to the girl and tells her to remain still. People are trying to move her out of the road to let traffic through– unbelievable. I wave down a Carbeneri – he does not speak English but he goes down the road. The police are not providing any first aid or even traffic guidance. A lot of onlookers – a nurse from Boston is dumbfounded - -it takes about 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. The girls name was Alexandra – we all hope she is fine.
We picked up the laundry and collapsed back at our room. We were tired and did not even eat dinner.
