Going Below the Grandiose

July 3rd, 2015

On our final day in Rome, we decided to finally have an early day and try to get to sites before the temperature crept up to 100 degrees, and all the tourists and selfie-sticks arrived. We began by visiting the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica. Walking into St. Peters in probably one of the most astonishing sights, the atrium itself would make a massive, beautiful church, let alone the rest of the Basilica. We seemed to arrive at the perfect time, as the light was shining through the windows perfectly. We bought tickets very far in advance for the Scavi and were very excited for this, as tickets are pretty rare. We were able to take a tour of the underground excavation site and see remains of St. Peter’s original tomb. While it was a cool experience, we both had moments where we thought we might pass out from the extreme heat and stagnant air. After this, we decided to climb the dome of St. Peter’s. While the extra cost for a lift ticket was well worth it, that only got us so far and we still had to climb over 500 incredibly narrow, steep, and winding stairs. However, the trek proved to be worthwhile and we enjoyed the views from the top of the dome overlooking the Basilica and the square. Then, we got to climb those same stairs down. Fun times.

We found pizza a few blocks away at Bonci, and decided to try what was fresh. Who knew figs on a pizza would be so delicious? We walked back in time to visit the Vatican Museum, which had many beautiful works of art, unfortunately we were hardly able to enjoy them as we were literally herded like cattle through the entire museum with thousands of people. That combined with the heat made it less than enjoyable. When we did finally make it to the Sistine Chapel, we were still able to take in the beauty of the ceiling. Chuck may have snuck a few pictures in before being yelled at and almost getting us kicked out, so we hope you enjoy the pictures.

We ended the night with the most epic dinner. Sander had recommended his favorite restaurant to us, outside of the main areas. When we arrived at L’Osteria di Monteverde, he had called ahead to discuss the menu with the owner and chef and told us to just sit back and enjoy ourselves. As anyone can tell from what we’ve written about so far, we love food and we wanted to remember everything so we found the menu so we can recreate the meal in our minds later. (www.losteriadimonteverde.it ) We let them choose a bottle of wine for us from Sicily and then they brought out nearly every dish on the menu for us to try. It was truly an amazing dinner experience. It’s going to be tough to beat that dinner for the rest of the trip, but we will certainly try.

Final thoughts on Rome:

1.     Traffic here is the craziest thing we (really Anna) have ever seen! There seem to be no rules and people park literally wherever they want-but it also seems to just flow here.

2.     Women wear heels everywhere all day. No matter what. Cobblestone, 8 months pregnant, out for breakfast…heels

3.     Rome is prettiest at night, once the tour busses left and we were able to take in the real city in all its glory.