Day 2 - Roma

Day 2 - Roma

This was our first complete day of the Trafalgar Tour and is a guided tour of the Vatican.  We visited the Vatican Sunday, but we intentionally tried to visit the areas we knew the tour would not cover, the Gratte and the Dome.

The tour provides breakfast at the hotel, pretty normal except in addition to bacon, they provide little hot dogs as a meat. Maybe they think Americans must have hotdogs with every meal?

We departed the hotel at 07:30 for the Vatican, it took about 20 mins do drive there, we walked it in 10 mins the day before.  Fabrizio said it is because we have the Polizio helping direct traffic...he is a bit of a comedian.



One of the things we did not really appreciate about being in the Trafalgar tour is that they have a special relationship with the Vatican, at least this is what they say.  This allows us to skip the lines into the Museum, St. Peter's and the Colosseum, in addition to access to parts of the Vatican that are not open to the public.

Our first stop was at the Vatican Museum where we met up with our local Specialist Suzzanna who was our guide for the rest of the day.  I can't say enough about knowledgeable she was and what a great job she did.  On the tour, you are given a small radio and ear piece, which allows you to hear everything she is saying without effort.













The Vatican museum has artifacts from before the Romans, before Christ, it is hard to get your head around.

The  Etruscans were civilized before the Romans, but were wiped out by the Roman empire. I found their mirrors interesting.











The museums each have a uniqueness, like statues tapestry, bronze or era.  This the second largest museum in the world second only to the Louvre in Paris. Some of the museum space was former residence for the Pope and others powerful in the church...it is just mind blowing that these rooms with the paintings and sculptures were a residence...opulence maximus.

 Within the Vatican museum is a special staircase that was built in 1505 by a famous architect Bramante, this is one area not open to the general public, but the Trafalgar relationship got us in. The stair case is really a spiral ramp that was used to move heavy items to the upper floors by horse.

It provides spectacular views.

From the museum we entered the Sistine Chapel, you cannot take pictures or talk inside so Suzzanna gave us an overview of what to look for inside the chapel before we went in, things like how Michelangelo portrayed his highest critic, who was on the Pope's staff, in the painting. Look it up, you will find it interesting.

From St Peter's we boarded the bus for the Colosseum, again our guide pointed out many interesting sites along the way that are just impossible to cover.

We arrived at the Colosseum and again we skipped the long lines and got priority treatment at the entrance. The Colosseum is spectacular.  It was constructed starting in 72AD and took only 8 years to build. It seated about 80,000 spectators, about the same as a football stadium today and remained in use for nearly 500 years...500 years.

After the Colosseum we went back to the hotel for about an hour rest...it was pouring...we debated taking the Piazza tour but decided what the heck.  We boarded the bus and it was raining even harder, only about half of the people showed up for this part of the tour, but they missed a great experience. The minute we stepped off the bus, it stopped raining.

 Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain, to say it is beautiful is an understatement.

If you toss a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder, it means you will return to Rome, of course we had to do it!!

Conveniently next to the  Trevi was a nice Gelato Shop, it was our first experience with Gelato, we have decided it is something we should have daily.

From the Trevi Fountain, we headed to see the Pantheon, it is in the middle of the city, just sitting there like it was when it was built in 27AD...about 2000 years ago...it still stands.

We no sooner entered The Pantheon and it started pouring, The Pantheon has a center hole, it was cool to see the rain coming down from the very center of the dome.

From the Pantheon we walked the Rome streets, it is amazing to see the mixture of old with new, they built new buildings using foundations and structure from 1000s of years ago.

Also you can see that the streets were about 3 meters lower in Roman times than today, they have been raised over the centuries to avoid flooding.

We finally arrived at Navona Piazza, one of the most famous squares in Rome. It has the Fountain of 4 Rivers of the world, one from each continent.  They did not include Australia because it was not known to the world when the the fountain was built.

We finished our tour with a nice dinner at a restaurant recommend by Fabrizio, Quatro Fiumi, and boarded the bus for the hotel.  When we got to the hotel, we stopped at the bar for a night cap, I had an Italian bitter, the girls an Amara (like a Grand Marnier) and Bob had a Grappa. We were joined by two women from Ohio, and wouldn't you know it they were from where Bob grew up. Small World.


Tuesday we board the bus for Lucca in Tuscany.