Jet lag kicks us in the butt and we have trouble sleeping through the night. We hit breakfast as soon as it's available and head off to Vatican City. One of our guidebooks tells us that taxis are one of the best ways to get around Rome and we quickly recognize the truth of this. There's a taxi stand 2 blocks from the hotel. We're not the first ones at the stand and amuse ourselves watching how crazy Roman drivers can be as we wait our turn.
The line at the Vatican Museum looks huge but moves quickly. Our Rick Steves guidebook quickly proves its worth. His tour of the Vatican Museum was spot-on in getting us through the museum, to various highlights, the Sistine Chapel, and then through a special back door to St. Peter's that saved us a long unnecessary walk.
In the sculpture garden, Laocoon packed a wallop. It's the piece that stand out the most from what at times was an overwhelming sensory overload. I was unhappily surprised when we got to the Sistine Chapel - the colors in many of the panels seemed to have changed from what I remember of them. Several of the major looked like there was too much red - or that the blues had perhaps faded too much. The smaller figures did not seem to be affected as much. But even so, the chapel is impressive. I don't want to leave, there's so much to take in you feel you could stay there for hours.
Eventually we make our way over to St Peter's. It's easy to forget in the hordes of sightseers that St Peter's Basilica is in fact a functioning church. The rows of confessional booths are a reminder that it is in fact a place of worship. Also the monk I spot lighting candles. Michelangelo's Pieta is unimpressive. The space itself is much more so. We took a swing down one level to check out some of the papal tombs on our way out. John Paul I (the 33 day pope) has an extremely plain tomb compared to the rest. Perhaps becase there was so little time to get it ready?
The plaza outside was set up full of chairs - don't know why, though I assume it's for some sort of concert or perhaps a Mass - and the result was to take away some of the impact Bernini intended with his use of the space. It's getting warm, we're tired, and we don't linger too long.
As if that wasn't enough for one day, we decide to head over to the Castel Saint'Angelo next. This site is a new one for me. Lots of old, dark, dank walls and given that the site was built one layer on top of another from antiquity, you get a real sense of age & time's passage. Scott loves it. He keeps patting the walls and marveling about how old they are. We pause for lunch at the bar in the castle and quickly learn how much our Italian books suck. Mom had suggested I buy a Living Language tape & book set as preparation & we had brought the books along with us. We should have gotten a Berlitz guide instead. I'd thought the LL books would cover what we'd need but I was wrong. We manage anyway.
I snap a bunch of photos from the top of the castle - excellent views! - and we start back across the Tiber, heading more or less in the direction of our hotel. It's still early afternoon, but we've seen a lot already and didn't have much left on the agenda for the day. My sense of direction is somewhat off and we get off course. Happily, we find ourselves at the Pantheon and decide we might as well tour it next.
The Pantheon is basically the only building in Rome that has survived intact since antiquity - Scott was thrilled. It is currently a church, but what impresses most is the architecture. Our other guidebook, Rome City Secrets, says that watching snow or rain fall into the Pantheon is quite a sight. I've never seen in in bad weather, but it's awe inspiring at any time. It's hard to wrap your brain around the fact that this amazing dome was built two thousand years ago. No power tools, no calculators, just human effort and ingenuity.
Several map miscues trying to leave the area showed us that the Fodor's Rome street map we'd bought was not as good as we'd hoped. We find a mini-map in Rick Steves that guides us to Giolitti's, an excellent gelateria nearby. As we find our way back to our hotel, I realize that my sense of direction is completely flummoxed and my memories of Rome are not helping. We keep making wrong turns, but eventually get back to the hotel.
Fighting jet lag then took over. We keeled over for a 2 hour nap and would have slept longer had my mother not called to confirm when we'd been meeting up for dinner. I struggled to stay awake after that, finally resorting to an insanely overpriced Coke from the minibar for a caffeine kick. Outside the US, Coke is made with sugar, not corn syrup, and it definitely tastes better.
We struggled through and made it to dinnertime. We met up with my parents and their friends, and headed to a Sicilian trattoria not far from the Vatican called Siciliainbocca. If my sister hadn't taken my mother to this restaurant last year we'd never have found the place. They speak little to no English at the restaurant. I can get very intimidated by my inability to communicate, but luckily we're with my parents, whose Italian is much better & helps me feel less overwhelmed. It was an excellent meal - my pasta course in particular was an amazing risotto with slivers of zuchini, orange and lemon zest. I'm reminded that experience and fearlessness are two keys to successful travel.
A long day is over, we head back to the hotel stuffed and sleepy.