Rome Day 2 — Sunday Escapades

The alarm woke us up at 6.30am since it would take us an hour to get into the Vatican City from our place and the museum opens at 9am. We had tried to buy skip the line tickets last night but it was saying there was nothing left so we would have to be there early to line up and hope we wernt going to wait very long. Lew has been reading up on the guys trying to sell you skip the line passes around the venue and that they often scam you. We missed the bus we were supposed to take as it came a couple of minutes early and the next one wasn't for another 20 minutes. That was the best option since it took you straight to the metro station instead of having to walk the 10 minutes between the overground and metro stations. Lew could see the overground train coming our way and we ran 500m down the road and across the tracks to catch it. They are very well used filthy trains covered in graffiti and at this time of the morning was relatively busy. We walked between the stations or Lew fast walked and I "jogged" beside him would be a better description of our movements! The next train allowed us to pop up just outside of the large stone wall of the Vatican City with the entrance to the museum being just a few hundred meters in front of us. We dodged the guys on the street saying "have you got your ticket Mr?" "Very long line do you want to skip it?" And walked up to the top of the que to see what was happening. Sure enough the line was already 200m long and 4 people wide of tourists waiting to get it. Another guy approached us asking if we wanted a skip the line ticket and Lew started asking him what we would actually get out of it. So it would cost us €33 ($55.60 NZD) euro to skip the line and get straight in. They also claimed that you got direct access to St Peter's Basilica, when you usually have to exit the museum and then stand in a line outside of the Vatican to re-enter and visit the church. Or we could wait in the line which he told us would probably take about 1.5 hours to get in as they give priority of those with skip the line passes. Lew asked me what I thought and I said that I would be happy to wait in line because I didn't even know what was inside the museum i wanted to see . But I had mentioned to him that I needed to pee so he said that was in the back of his mind when he made the decision to go with the guy to the office. We walked in and it felt just like Indonesia with the hagglers ripping tourists off. We didn't have enough cash to pay so they added on an extra €2 ($3.40 NZD) charge to use our credit card. We pretty much knew we were being scammed as the skip the line pass offered by the actually museum we were looking at last night would have cost us €22 ($37 NZD). If we were able to actually book them. But hey they had a toilet! Maybe some advice to book a little more than 12 hours before you go!

They told us that we had the 9am slot and it was only 8.45am so we had to wait on their couches and we watched as they managed drag a few more tourists in. Clearly they had some sort of group booking that they got in advanced and then had to fill a quota. In saying that if you are going to use them on purpose or probably rather by accident make sure you ask them what time slot you will be going in on because the entire time we were our on the street being convinced to take up their services they said we would walk straight in and it was only after we paid they told us our time slot. There was about10 of us that they walked up to the entrance past the line that was steadily growing and straight in the doors of the museum. Easy as that! We went through the metal detectors and we had to put both our bags in to storage probably because I had food in mine and Lews was too big. The guy went to the group ticket office and then handed out tickets to each of us before sending us on our way. The ticket was just the basic €16 ($27 NZD) so I doubt we actually have access straight through to the Basilica which we were most annoyed about (but Lew had a trick up his sleeve). We had no maps and just walked into the first part of the museum we came across. This was the section of sculptures of Greek and Roman Emperors and people living during that time. There were so many hallways of these things they had managed to dig up and Lew was right when he said he wished they had preserved them where they were found (although this would make for a large number of museums, and who has time for that?) as it was hard to visualise where it came from especially since they added on arms etc where they had been destroyed. I was a tad bored and spent most of my time looking for people who appeared similar to members in my family, photographed them and sent them to everyone in our group chat. It was good entertainment and Lew even chose the one he thought looked like him, problem was he was naked so I made sure the photograph included the exposed genitalia. That got the chat going with both my brothers giving Lew some grief over his replica man having a tiny penis and man boobs 😂. I think he should choose more carefully next time! We got lost in the numerous halls and stumbled across a very famous marble sculpture of Laocoön and his Sons that was excavated in a Roma Vineyard in 1506 but thought to be sculpted somewhere between 27 BC and 68 AD. This was the first sculpture to be part of the Vatican museum when it opened in 1506 as well. At the time we had no clue why there happened to be such a large crowd around this particular sculpture and we didn't even get a photograph of it. So sorry you will have to do a google search of your own! Wandering around some more we found the gallery of maps which was opened in 1581 and represents the regions of Italy in an artistic but geographically correct (perhaps for that time but not so correct these days!) The maps allowed the Pope to "take a walking tour of Italy without leaving the Vatican". We also walked down a gallery of tapestries of which we had seen so many of during our chateau exploration day in the Loire Valley, France. We were walking through it rather quickly because of this until we overheard an English tour guide talking about a particular tapestry that was portraying the resurrection of Christ and took 50 workers 7 years to complete. It was certainly quite the masterpiece! The Gallery of Candelabra was what we walked down in order to get to the Sistine Chapel. It was beautifully decorated with paintings that gave it a 3D effect and gold accented the edges. The hallway was clogged up with tour groups and you spent most of your time pushing your way through the masses. They funnelled you down some more hallways and steps till you get to the Sistine Chapel and there were a few signs showing appropriate clothing to wear. I was a bit annoyed as I had my Turkish towel but it was still in my bag so Lew and the rest of the unassuming crowd managed to shield me and my bare legs into the chapel. Apologies to those of you who may be offended by this but it's just a couple of knobbly knees! I'm not exactly dressed like a prostitute for goodness sacks. Well the plan worked and we ended up being in the middle of a very crowded room with everyone staring up at the ceiling. Every single wall was covered with frescos which are painting done rapidly in watercolour on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colours penetrate the plaster and become fixed as it dries.

Michelangelo started painting the frescoes for Pope Julius II in 1508, replacing a blue ceiling dotted with stars. Michelangelo tells the story of The Creation of the Heavens and Earth; this is followed by The Creation of Adam and Eve and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden; finally is the story of Noah and the Great Flood. It's certainly a lot to take in and you can't even take pictures to study at a later date! I can promise you that you don't even want to try since the room is almost silent and you will get yelled at in a great booming voice not to take photos. I did try to take a quick one by holding my phone below me but it didn't really turn out and if it did it would never be a good representation of how crazy this place is. Looking around I was the only person with my legs showing and everyone else must be trapsing the streets of Rome wearing long pants in 25 degree heat. Now this is the part where I told you we wernt sure if we would be able to access the St Peters Basilica from the back entrance way of the Sistine Chapel or have to go back outside and wait in line. Lew has read some blogs about it and people had said that even if your ticket doesn't allow you access you can still do it. The sneaky way is that you immerse yourself in one of those dreaded tour groups you have been trying so hard to dodge and move through the corridor with them (literal human busses). No one checked any of our tickets or even blinked an eye at us to be honest and it isn't breaking the rules or anything it's just making the place flow as it should. We did get a little confused when we were out of the corridors as to where we had to go next since we had no tour group to really follow! The entrance to the Basilica finally became apparent to us and this time as we made our way in I borrowed Lews vest to wrap around my knees since the crowd wasn't so thick and I couldn't hide them. Now this place I would say is number two to visit behind the Sagrada Familia. It's sheer enormity and the fact that this is the birthplace of Christianity really hits you. It is beautifully decorated as you could imagine and I can't even describe in words the appearance of it. It looks as though it to is covered in frescoes but in fact it is decorated with mosaics with such tiny pieces of glass that its appearance is similar to a painting.

This Basilica isn't the first St Peter's as the original church was built in the 4th century by Emperor Constantine who was the Roman Empire's first Christian Emperor. The Basilica was in ruins by the early Renaissance and Pope Julius II tore it down and built the current St Peter's Basilica between 1506-1626 AD. The large four posted structure you can see on the photos is called the baldacchino and despite being dwarfed by the dome ceiling it actually stands 10 stories high and contains 100,000 pounds of bronze. Once we had finished gawking at the place and coming across a wedding in one of the side rooms we made our way out into the bright sunlight. I couldn't believe what we could see as we were leaving and that was a line that wrapped around the entire circle of St Peters square which was people who were waiting to access the Basilica (some 500m). It is free to access but you pay the price of potentially waiting for hours in the hot sun just to catch a glimpse of the interior. We were so thankful as I can imagine we wouldn't have had the patience to wait in that. Feeling very hungry (although I snuck in a couple of muesli bars for us to eat in secret in the museum as a snack!) we walked towards the top rated pizza place in the area called Bonci. It was incredibly busy (with locals, a great sign) but thankfully they had a ticket system so we didn't have to wait long to be served. We got two large sliced of tomato and salami pizza on a thick focaccia type base for €6 and we walked to what looked like a nearby park. It really wasn't anything pretty but at least it didn't smell like urine around the seat like most other places do. Supplementing lunch with some snacks we were ready to head to the Roman Forum next to see some old rocks and dirt. We took the metro there and once again our friend Tim had advised us to buy tickets for the Colosseum and the Roman Forum in a joint package that also includes Palatine Hill. This was all at the ticket both to the Roman Forum . Tim also recommend that we get the audio guide as you get a bit more out of it than just looking at dirt. He was certainly correct as we were able to walk around imagining what the area looked like. There were a couple of structures that stood out to us along the way and one of these was the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina built in 141 AD. The most striking thing is the fact that it was converted into a Catholic Church which had been built into the original building and is the main reason it is still so well preserved today. What was also very noticeable was on the temples front marble columns there are deep grooves which are supposed to date back to medievilattempts to dismantle the building to either reuse the marble or to destroy the building itself. Another interesting area of the Roman Forum is the House of the Vestal Virgins which is close to the Temple of Vesta. The Vestal Virgins were 6 priestesses who were chose between the age of 6-10 from well to do families by a chief priest. Their main roles were to vigilantly tend to the perpetual fire in the Temple of Vesta, keeping their vow of chastity, fetching water from a sacred spring, preparing ritual food, caring for objects in the temple’s inner sanctuary, and officiating at the Vestalia. The cult is believed to date back to the 7th century BC but was banned in 394 AD. The Vestal Virgins served for 30 years and if they failed to attend to their duties they were beaten but worse was If they violated their vow of chastity they were buried alive. They did however have many privileges that were not open to women of the same social standings.

The next ruin was of the Milliarium Aureum, a bronze and marble Monument erected in 20 BC by Emperor Caesar Augustus near the Temple of Saturn in the middle of the Roman Forum. Every single road was considered to start from this point as it symbolised the start of the Roman road system to the rest of Italy. Last but not least was the assumed area of where Emperor Juilus Caesar was cremated. He was stabbed to death or rather assassinated in 44 BC and was cremated shortly after. What is considered his grave site where people often leave flowers is the ruins of the Temple of Caesar. There were many many other interesting ruins but they would have to be the ones that caught our interest the most. We walked back to return our headsets on the original cobblestones of the main road that have aged and become very smooth and slippery on top. We imagined it must have been very difficult to ride your chariot over back in those days! We walked down the road and we were at the Colosseum. Our tickets allowed us access straight in although there wasn't a line anyway since it was 4pm in the afternoon. It was great having already seen the arena in Nimes as it was better preserved and gave us a better overall picture of what the colosseum would have looked like originally. They security check you again with a bag X-ray machine but luckily they didn't care about the size of our bags since I had read there wasn't anywhere you could leave them. We wandered around the bottom floor and one of the things that was very different to the Nimes arena was the fact that they had excavated the entire below ground level out. You could see where all the holding pens would have been and it even went down a few floors. There wasn't much marble left because when Christianity took over they took all the marble from the Roman buildings to use it to built other important structures. The marble and brick work that did remain was well preserved in places but majority of the original staircases up to the seating areas and the seating area themselves had mostly collapsed. It was after all commissioned in 72 AD by Emperor Vespasian and completed by his son Titus in 80 AD. It allows access to 55,000 spectators who were seated according to rank and was considered the largest amphitheater in the Roman world. The amphitheatre hosted gladiatorial combats, hunts, wild animal fights and larger combats such as mock naval engagements (for which the arena was flooded with water). The coliseum suffered a lot of damage from earthquakes and lightning strikes and just general wear and tear over the year and was in a state of damage in need of repairs in the 1800's when various popes sought to conserve the area as a sacred Christian site. Although it is still unknown as to whether any Christian martyrs met their fate here. We dragged our feet aroundthe upper level, took some photographs and thought we should call it a day before we got to exhausted to navigate home.

Catching the train back we freshened up, had some cat cuddles and a bit of down time before diner. We thought we should try our another restaurant recommended to us by our Airbnb hosts and that was called Necci. It was an adorable place with outdoor seating under fairy lights and the only thing wrong about it was the people smoking around us. We ordered some wine and they gave us some bread which we figured there was a cover charge for (there wasn't!!). There was no pizza on the menu which was good since Lew hadn't tried any proper Italian pasta at this stage. We had to google a few of the pasta types but thankfully didn't have to translate anything since they give us an English menu. I don't know how they knew since Lew was dressed up as French as he could with his Le coq sportif and best on haha. I wasn't sure which one to get between a shrimp and red pepper pasta or a cod dish. I picked the cod but when it came out i wasn't actually sure what one she had written me down for! It could have been either of the dishes but I was pretty sure she had given me the shrimp pasta. Lew has this yummy looking mushroom cheese pasta and it was good to see him branching out. We actually decided on this place because it had some mean looking burgers on their online menu but when we arrived they weren't in there. I could tell Lew was still hungry when we finished so I said we could order some wedges. These were incredibly well done fresh homemade BBQ sauce and aioli as well. Feeling complete and very relaxed (or maybe just exhausted) we paid the bill and left. Turns out she had ordered me the shrimp pasta which was excellent as it was €4 cheaper! We tried to buy Some gelato on the way home but the man at the bar ignored me for so long I decided to leave if he was going to be so rude he wasn't getting any of our money. We completely crashed at home and looked forward to a sleep in and a leisurely drive down to the Amalfi coast tomorrow!

Tips for entering the Vatican City, Roman Forum and Collosseum

Buy a skip the line ticket
Or you will notice that there is an entrance for groups and skip the line access passes. When you see a large group of people being taken through just get amongst them as the guard only scans the guides main ticket and you get your actual tickets to enter the museum on the inside. You will go through a security scan but once inside you can go and buy your individual tickets. There is no way they would even be able to tell that you weren't part of the group (sneaky although not illegal, we didn't recommend this 😉 )
Use the entrance at the back right hand corner of the Sistine Chapel to enter the area in which St Peters Basilica is and once again immerse yourself into a group and you shouldn't have any issue (ignore tour group only signs)
Don't buy skip the line passes from the street people trying to sell them to you. They are a rip off.
If you want to see the Bramante double helix stairs then this is apparently only on special tours
Buy tickets for both the Colosseum and Roman Forum at the Roman Forum entrance allowing you to skip the queue for Colosseum