My second day in Rome began with a visit to the Vatican Museums. Uncharacteristically of my trips thus far, I pre-booked tickets for 9:30 a.m. so I could skip the queue and head straight in to the miles-long museum complex of winding corridors and gold-leaf rooms adorned with beautiful frescoes.
I grabbed a chocolate croissant (warm and gooey) and a cafe au lait (I have no idea how to say that in Italian) before heading in.
I practically ran straight for the Sistine Chapel to try and beat the crowds, and it worked to some extent. I had a bit of a Mona Lisa moment unfortunately: the room seemed smaller and less grandiose than legend prompts one to expect. It was absolutely stunning despite this, and I found myself with my neck perpendicular to my chest as I stared disbelievingly at Michelangelo's David and the thousands of other frescoes of scenes which I recognized from the previous day's explorations of ancient Rome. It was a crazy feeling.
I managed to see most of the rest of the museum sans tour guide, although I snuck snippets of what I could hear from the English-speaking guides as I was bottle necked into a tour group of people plugged into a headset, following the guide waving the flag on a stick at the front of their group. They all looked quite comical, I must admit, and I enjoyed my freedom of being able to frolic anywhere in the museum and keep the extra ten odd euros to myself.
After the museums, I found Piazza San Pietro, where I was planning on visiting St. Peter's basilica, arguably the most renowned basilica in the world. Upon arrival, I noticed that the whole square was filled to bursting with Romans wearing blue and yellow uniforms and baffled tourists. After hearing various hymns and a couple speeches, I had a feeling that just maybe, just perhaps, the pope might be in the vicinity. So I waited for what seemed like hours beneath the thirty-five degree sun, and then it happened. There were flatscreen TVs on the perimeter of the square, and it was on one of these that I saw the pope ride out into the crowd on his famous Popemobile, waving and kissing babies' heads as Jesus Christ, You Are My Life blared in the background. It was quite surreal to say the least, and even more surreal as, after countless other speeches and mild heatstroke, I heard the pope give a speech.
I then waited for the basilica to be reopened for another half an hour, and thoroughly enjoyed exploring it, despite my exhaustion and heat stroke.
I then walked along the Tiber river and had my first Roman pizza, which was unfortunately from a tourist place and not very good, but I was starving.
My afternoon consisted of Piazza Navona (Neptune), and the beautiful Navona Fountain, along with the Pantheon, a cute little village hidden away in some sidestreets, and then discovering this amazing street artist.
He had positioned little pieces of wood with various phrases relating to Roman culture beside various scraps of garbage to illustrate said phrase. The result was something like this:
I then found Piazza del Popolo, which was fairly empty due to the incoming rainfall. Dinner was a takeaway tub of 4 euro pasta (possibly the best I've ever had), along with a *free* glass of undoubtedly the best wine I've ever tasted.
I met a fellow Canadian on the Spanish Steps, where I had taken my wine and pasta, and we spent the evening wandering together.
Stay tuned for day three, wherein I explore Trastevere, get soaked in a thunderstorm, and get in an old Roman's car.
Love always,
Coral
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