Roman Holiday: Day 1 - The Vatican City

Roman Holiday: Part 1

We left for our trip to Rome early last Thursday morning. Out taxi arrived promptly at 5am, and we lugged all of our baggage down three flights of stairs. The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Rome about 10:30. We took a cab to the hotel. The driver was certainly aggressive. The traffic was horrible and in order to make any progress at all he would create lanes between other cars where no lane really existed. I think Kara was a little scared for a while, but we finally arrived without a scratch.

The hotel was nice. Most of the staff spoke English, so we had no trouble communicating. The location was fabulous – pretty much right in the middle of everything we wanted to see. It was also right across the street from a Gelateria (Ice Cream Shop). Yay! Easy access to ice cream!

After lunch at the hotel we headed for the Vatican City, hoping to see the Sistine Chapel. When we arrived, we stood in a long line just to get through security. We kept seeing signs that said no tank tops, but when we looked at everyone else in line, we thought they just must not be enforcing that rule. That was the hope anyway, as Kara was wearing a sleeveless shirt. Just before we ascended the stairs to enter St. Peter’s Basilica two guards stopped us and told us that Kara couldn’t enter. We looked at the people entering ahead of us, and all these women had whipped scarves and wraps out of their bags to cover their shoulders

We tried to figure out what to do. We weren’t going to go in without Kara. Then I remembered that I had a small towel in my bag – wrapped around the extra lens for protection on the plane. I took it out, but it was much too small to cover her shoulders. I wasn’t having any success trying to rip it, so Kara used the corner of a credit card to start a tear and Michael finished ripping it apart. We took each half and tucked it under her shirt to cover her shoulders. Success! The guards told us we could enter. They even smiled at our ingenuity. They weren’t so happy when I tried to take a picture of Kara in that get up. I think they felt we were making fun of the church, but we just thought she looked funny in her makeshift sleeves.

Travel Tip: If you’re planning to visit any part of the Vatican City while in Rome, make sure that you have something to cover your shoulders and knees. Many vendors sell wraps and scarves, and also paper pants for anyone wearing shorts.

We entered the Basilica and walked toward the line for the Cupola. We couldn’t find any signs directing us to the Sistine Chapel. While we waited in line to go up into the Cupola we chatted with a very nice American couple that had been to Rome before. We learned that we had to enter the Vatican City a different way to get to the Sistine Chapel, but it closed at 3pm. We were too late for that day, but we decided to stay and finish exploring the Basilica.

We purchased tickets and rode the elevator up to the Cupola. After seeing the beautiful view at the base of the Cupola, we decided to climb the remaining 320 stairs to the top. That’s really a lot more stairs than you think. It might have been better except the walls were sloped in, so you had to angle you body away from the walls. It was awkward to say the least. We finally made it to the top. I was worried about Kara because she’d had to stop to rest before reaching the top, but she finally made it after resting and a very nice person offering her some water. The view from the top was beautiful. We had a great bird’s eye view of Rome. It was breathtaking!

After taking a lot of pictures, we decided to call it a day. We left the Vatican City and walked along the Tiber River back toward our hotel. Along the way we came across the most unusual statue. It was a female figure wearing a beautiful dress. She was completely surrounded by a red transparent box. It was quite a striking blend of simplicity, drama, and elegance. The building turned out to be the Valentino Fashion Museum. It was closed for the day, but we enjoyed seeing the beautiful dresses in the windows as we walked by.

We took a brief rest at the hotel before heading out for dinner. We ended up in this nice little restaurant – Italian food of course.

Travel Tip: If you’re not fluent, or at least semi-fluent, in the native language, don’t try to order dinner in anything except English!

While we were eating, a group of seven Americans were seated not far from us. We believe that the younger couple – probably in their early 20’s – was either engaged or at least very close because this girl had been invited along on a family vacation. Apparently she had been learning Italian and felt this more fully qualified her to order dinner for everyone. The waiter came and she began, having to ask one of the family members who did know some Italian how to say different word. Needless to say, she completely butchered the language – more than half of what she said to the Waiter was in English. When she finally realized that the waiter spoke English, she was a little embarrassed, but still seemed pleased with her self. It was hilarious!

On the way back to the hotel, a flower vendor tried to sell us flowers. Of course, first he says he’ll give them to you, and then once you take them he follows you around begging for “just a few coins.”

Travel Tip: Guys, when a flower vendor approaches your wife or girlfriend and you’re playing the romantic – buy the flowers from him before he offers so that you can give your girl a rose. Otherwise he’ll shove it into her hand telling her how beautiful she is and then follow you around begging for money. If you don’t cough up, he’ll take his flowers back. This is a very frequent occurrence so ladies, you need to learn to just tuck your hands away and not take the offered flower every time because otherwise you’ll end up with a hundred of them, a shrinking pocket book, and not even a vase to put them in!

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and crashed for the night. We had only been at it for a half day and we were exhausted. We knew that we would need more sleep before tackling the Sistine Chapel and other sites we wanted to see on Friday. I can't wait to tell you all about it tomorrow!