Another beautiful day in Rome - the forecast today was another clear, sunny, 22 degree day. We hit the road, walking West towards the Tiber. It was Wednesday today, and I knew the pope was giving his sermon at some point, but I didn't really know how it affected the sights at Vatican City.
The girls giggled at another Papa reference sign in an alley along the way...
We crossed the Tiber at the Ponte Umberto I just east of the picturesque Castel Sant'Angelo. The view down the river in the mid morning was nice. Rome, though a large city with lots of vehicles parked all over the place, feels like a pretty quiet city. The traffic, at least where we've been, does not seem even remotely as bad as you'd think it would be.
We strolled up towards St. Peter's at the head of Vatican City and noticed that the Pope's address was just starting. There were tens of thousands of people in the special seats in front of the stage that sits in front of the church. The pope and another priest alternated speaking roles. Catholic or not, it was pretty cool to see the center of Catholicism in action.
We decided to return at the end of the day when the basillica was open and the crowds were smaller. We headed South towards Trastavere, using a quiet neighbourhood route so we didn't have to return using the same roads.
At one point, we rounded a corner and had a fantastic view over the river to the main part of the city. We remarked how similar it would be to Istanbul, if it weren't for the domes of the churches missing minarets of mosques standing next to them.
We turned and snapped a pic of a nice looking building with a large fountain in front that was on the other side of the road - the Fontanone dell'Acqua Paola.
The pictures from the viewpoint sucked, so we will not be doing a video, Google screen grab etc.
We were on a mission. Abby's friend Ema had reported the following about her time in Rome - "the Forum sucks - don't go, it's boring. Gelato is amazing." and "Ivo Pizza has the best pizza in Rome." Well, surly Ema tried most pizzarias in Rome, so we just "had" to go there.
Luckily, it was also in the Trastavere district where we had a Rick Steves walk to do.... So we accepted the mission to find Ivo Pizza.
And here it is....
In fact, many restaurants in the area were closed today for some reason that I could probably google but won't. It's probably just a "Wednesday thing" like our slow restaurant day on Monday at home where many family restaurants are closed. We ended up finding a tiny little local place that had great and cheap food (and beer!). We were the first ones in, but by the time we left, the place was packed full of locals, so that was a real winner!
The girls wanted to capture a bunch of pictures on our interesting little walk through this really colourful neighbourhood just west of the Tiber.
I love these cobbles.....I'd also love to know how long they last compared to asphalt, and what the replacement and maintenance costs are.... Ugh, I'm starting to think like a builder again.
We stopped for a short break and sat down on the edges of the fountain outside the Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, which had an interesting story.
Rick Steves recommended we try the hand made cookies from Biscottificio Artigiano Innocenti and I made the mistake of reading that little route option out loud, so the girls went in and ordered a few.
Ah...bread-in-bike shot. Abby has been saying that riding with a baguette in her basket in Paris is now on her bucket list. Lol.
We got to the Piazza Di Santa Maria in Trastevere that was buzzing with youthful activity. Apparently they set up huge TV screens in this square whenever there is a big football match.
Robin has become quite the negotiator, and she won't take shit from anyone. She needed to buy yet another pair of sunglasses (note to future potential suitors....you'll need a special closet for shoes and another for accessories with this girl!) and approached a guy on her own. She recounted the story: "he started at 15 and I said 5. He said '12' and I said, no, 5. He said 'ok 10' and I said, uh no way... 5. I walked away and he said 'ok, 7.50' and I said, 7, or no deal. He said 'fine'. Then when I tried to pay, he only gave me two euros back so I said '3 euros!'. Then he gave me 80 more cents and I said '20 more cents!' Man!!". Man is right.... That was awesome Rob.
It was time to check out the Pope's digs. We took the return route next to the river, and arrived back at St Peter's in thirty minutes. St. Peter's Basilica and the surrounding square and edifices are very impressive. The girls voted 3-0 against visiting the sisteen chapel, and since my vote didn't court, I abstained. I wasn't going to force the issue as Beth and I had seen it before (to be honest, with the crowds on the tours to see the famous painted ceiling, the whole thing had left us pretty underwhelmed), so the girls are welcome to come back and do it on their own some day.
The line to get through security to enter the church was pretty long, and I was getting the sense of a pending full-blown mutiny. I wasn't going to let the three of them get away from seeing the inside of St Peter's, so I brilliantly suggested we pick some people who stuck out in the line to use them as time trackers and then to go get a gelato and see what happens. Sure enough, we came back 15 minutes later and our lady with the pinkish white umbrella who had started at the back was almost through to the front of security. I had Beth take the kids to sit down near the front and I waited in line.
First stop once we got in to the front of the church was to head to the dome climb. You can climb 550 stairs to the top of the basilica, or take an elevator for two euros and climb the last 330 steps. Beth was questioning why I got the elevator tickets, but based on the near mutiny, I figured we'd had enough steps so far today.
The climb up the stairs gets you quickly into the inner ring of the base of the basillica dome where you can look way down to the floor of the church and way up to the top of the dome above. Along the outer wall of the dome, there were dozens of beautiful mosaics - it was quite something.
We began to climb, following a group of three in front who were a little slow. At first, you go straight up a tight spiral stairway for about 180 steps (what? I was bored ok!). Beth was not doing too well behind us as she was feeling a little compressed. Eventually, we reached a little landing, then started on a stairway that started to wind up and around the narrower part of the dome. Gradually, the stairway ceiling and walls started to slant to the right to conform with the slope of the dome. Beth was not liking this, but we were committed, as it was a one way climb and a different path to descend.
Reaching the fresh air at the top was nice, though the place was crowded. I'm actually surprised that they didn't seem to have a limit on how many people could be up there. The views from the top were spectacular.
Beth and Robin opted to head down, while Abby and I made our way through the crowds around the circular tower to check out the different perspectives. The view to the back, over Vatican City was beautiful, though a little haunting with the lack of activity. Such a weird oasis in the middle of Rome.
After ten minutes, we were ready to rejoin the other half of the family, so we went quickly down the stairs. The roof of the church was kind of cool to explore. I loved the viewpoint looking out the front towards the square. You get a real sense for how big the statues were that overlook the crowds below.
Inside, the church is really impressive. My real camera turned in some awesome pictures, but the lack of light inside doesn't help my little phone camera. Anyway, you get the idea.... Yada, yada, yada it's really beautiful - Google it :-)!
The paintings around the place were spectacular.
We made our way slowly out through the the church, down the steps and across the square. We continued walking, and walking, and walking. I have not heard one complaint about the walking today, which was impressive since Timex told me later that we'd logged 27,400 steps and 19km - oh what would we do without her FitBit (trademark, patent pending I'm sure...). The girls have really enjoyed cruising, and their continued oohs and ahhs are sure to leave an indelible mark on them.... If they didn't have the travel bug before, they surely have it now.
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