Another Amazing Day in Rome

S.P.Q.R. - you are ubiquitous in Italy...

SPQR - you see the letters everywhere, on statues, roads, and even garbage containers.  The acronym SPQR stands for S(enatus) P(opulus) Q(ue) R(omanus) (in Latin): the Senate and people of Rome.  This is just one of many facts we have absorbed as we've visited Europe, a visit that ends with today's travels through the rest of the Roman sights we had as must-sees for our visit here.

Sight One on our remaining list was the Vatican, which (technically) is not a Roman site at all.  Yes, the Vatican is entirely within the City of Rome, but since the 1929 Lateran Treaty between the Catholic Church and Italy, the Vatican is a sovereign nation - an independent country.  Sure, a country with only 110 acres and a population of just over 800, but a country nonetheless!  Now, this trip is not about counting or collecting countries, but for those keeping track, this (not including Canada) is country number 20 on our trip.

We walked from our apartment directly into St. Peter's Square.  From there, St. Peter's Basilica (the enormous church in the middle), the obelisk, and two lines - three-deep - of columns are all visible.  The square was thronged with tourists, even though it was only about 10 am.  We jumped in line for St. Peter's, and went through the requisite security and metal detectors - at least we didn't have to take off our shoes.  The Basilica was tremendous - enormous, echoing, every "large" adjective you can imagine - simply put, it was BIG.  We explored the chapels branching off from every side, and then spent some time people watching as well.  Every country in the world seemed to be represented, and many people wore the uniforms of clergy - nuns and pastors from everywhere were wandering, gaping openly at the Basilica.  We also saw some architecture students dutifully mapping out the church and making sketches of the interior.

St. Peter's ceiling was amazing all by its lonesome!

Erin and Tabitha join the tourists inside St. Peter's Basilica.

Honestly, pictures don't do the Basilica justice.  It really was incredible.  Here, you see the main altar.

Michaelangelo created the domed ceiling above the altar, if you can see it at all.

Erin found the confessionals interesting, as her church doesn't have real booths.

We spotted a service in progress at one of the chapels within the church, and Erin took the opportunity to receive Catholic communion there in the Basilica.  The Basilica really was the largest church we've visited, and in most cases, the pictures simply speak for themselves.

Tabitha has made it to the Vatican!

After our visit to the Basilica was finished, we headed back through the square to find the entrance to the Vatican's museums.  We stopped for strawberry gelato, and then were met with a number of tour guides offering us English-guided tours that promised to skip the (we were assured) hour-and-a-half lines into the museums.  Their offer seemed a bit off - and the tours would be $105 for us both, even at student rates.  We opted to skip the offer - we figured that we had a little time to wait in line, and it was a beautiful day.  The line took about 10 minutes, and we paid $24 for our entrance into the museums.  The Basilica, incidentally, was free.

We wandered through the numerous museums in the Vatican, all of which culminate in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.  We probably spent a little too much time in the sculpture gardens, but we came away with a lot of terrific examples of early Roman and Greek sculptures to share:

The head of Caesar Augustas in the courtyard.  Erin is standing next to it just to give you an idea of how big it actually was.

The statute of Laocoön and His Sons was broken, then fixed incorrectly, then fixed correctly. More or less.

Perseus and the head of Medusa post-removal.  Ouch!

We thought this one looked a little bit like Jack Black.

We passed through Raphael's rooms as well, which were filled wth gawking tourists - with good reason:
Finally, we arrived at the Sistine Chapel, which was chock-full of shoulder-to-shoulder tourists gaping up at the ceiling.  Photos were not allowed, which makes it something of a miracle that we can bring you several examples of what we saw:

Inside the Stanze di Raphael, notice that Tabitha found her place in the "School of Athens."

The iconic ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michaelangelo.



The far wall of the Sistine Chapel.

The trip to the Vatican took most of the day, as wandering through museums can.  Our next stop, though, was one Erin was especially excited to see: Stop Number 2 - the Trevi Fountain.  However, on the way, we passed another Roman landmark: the Castle of Saint Angelo, the former tomb of the Roman Emperor Hadrian that was built about the same time as the Roman Pantheon we visited yesterday:

The Castle as it is viewed from the bridge - it is quite a site (and sight)!

Another view of the Tiber River on a beautiful Roman day.

According to Wikipedia, the Trevi Fountain is the largest Baroque fountain in Rome.  The Trevi Fountain also featured prominently in the Audrey Hepburn movie, "Roman Holiday" - and it's a main feature of the Italy portion of Epcot Center in Florida.  In Rome, according to the theme of today, it was once again filled with tourists.  Perhaps it was the weather, or perhaps it was the promise of a weekend, but it was really difficult to navigate through the crowd. 

Erin and James in front of the Trevi Fountain just after we tossed our coins!  (that is not slang for anything) 

We each tossed a coin over our respective shoulder and made wishes for safe travels.  We also posed for our last Roman fountain picture before making our way to our next and final stop.

Our third stop was the Spanish Steps (the "Scalinata") which is supposedly the longest and widest staircase in Europe.  Surprisingly, the route we took deposited us at the top of the stairs, rather than the bottom. 
Our trip to the Steps was circuitous, and this was entirely James's fault.  To explain: when James looked at his watch this morning, the time was correct - but the second hand moved five seconds at a time.  This was not good, and we were flying out tomorrow. 

James's mission today, in addition to our tourist itinerary, was to find a store that would change a Hamilton watch battery.  Watch stores have not been sparse throughout our trip - in fact, they seemed to be one of the most frequent stores we saw - much more frequent than, say, good grocery stores.  Today, though, they were in short supply.  James kept taking Erin down random side streets in search of watch stores, but to no avail.  This eventually brought us to the Spanish Steps - but we had traveled so far East and North that we came in from the topside.

We were somewhat exhausted by the time we got to the top of the Steps, and it was clear that we have spent 30 straight days traveling in Europe at this point - in each other's company, nearly 24 hours out of every day.  We were a little tired, but we quickly snapped out of our fugue when we heard a commotion on the steps.  We saw a very agitated Italian man fighting off several beggars, and saw a wallet drop to the ground. 

Throughout Europe, we have seen many different forms of begging.  This is not street performers - it is people whose sole job is to beg on the streets, whether prostrate, in a wheelchair or on cardboard, or actively approaching tourists and others.  Here on the Spanish Steps, for the first time, we saw very, very active beggars - who would approach and begin to touch people.  In this case, the Italian man felt that the beggars were trying to steal his wallet, and he may have been right.  The group of beggars - we estimated about three or four - simply laughed off his accusations, and quickly moved on to their next target.

This idea of begging as a profession, and the idea of "Gypsies" generally has been a new concept for Erin.  James has been pointing out how different street groups behave as we've traveled throughout Europe, and when we visited Bucharest, Romania, home of the Romany Gypsies, it was ironic that the scam tried on us with the $100 two-block cab ride depended on a FEAR of Gypsies and their homes in Bucharest.  Romany Gypsies have traveled widely throughout Europe, aided in part by the more-open borders of the European Union, and concern about that type of begging activity has been voiced by more than one person we've met on our travels.  That said, but for the scam tried on us and this very violent outburst on the Steps, we've been relatively untouched.  We do pay close attention to our surroundings - and whenever approached, James is quite brusque to anyone getting too "close" - sometimes to Erin's embarrassment.  We do not mean to be rude, and certainly do not want to be suspicious of everyone and everything - but we've been safe thus far, and would like to keep that record perfect.

James sitting on the Spanish Steps just after a seller tried to force Erin to take one of his offered for-sale roses.

A view from the Spanish Steps looking down onto the fountain.

Back to the Steps, and the saga of the watch battery.  We posed for some photos on the Spanish Steps, people-watched for a bit, and then headed into Rome's central shopping district.  James finally found a watch shop - which sent him on to another watch shop with very vague directions.  That was unhelpful, and after asking directions from another couple of places, we were sent to a watch repair shop.  That was closed.  At 3:30 in the afternoon.  A local shop finally took pity on James and fixed his watch, so he'll know what time it is in Cairo tomorrow.

And that was it.  The Spanish Steps was the last real tourist destination for the two of us in Europe.  We looked at the cafes around our apartment for a likely dinner place, but were surprised by the lack of choice.  We opted for a homemade dinner at our condo, followed by a visit to our local internet cafe to finish up some work and update the blog for the last time before Africa.  We have no idea when we'll next have internet access, so stay tuned, and we'll try to get our next posts up as soon as possible.

Wish us luck!