Easter Sunday
It was a very long day of traveling. From Santa Justa Estación, we took the train to Madrid, from the Madrid station we took a train to terminal four in the airport, and from terminal four we took a bus to terminal one. However, that was almost very disastrous because we needed to get to terminal two for our flight and so when it stopped at terminal one we remained on the bus thinking that it would continue on to our terminal. When we heard people mentioning the train station in Madrid, we became concerned that the bus was potentially going to go all the way back to the first train station we arrived at in Madrid, which would put us in jeopardy of missing our flight. So when a fellow passenger informed us that we needed to get off at terminal one, we started trying to get the bus driver to open the door, and after a couple other people chimed in and came to our aid, the door opened at last much to my great relief. Then we weren’t exactly sure how to get to terminal two, so we began walking along the outside of terminal one until we came to this restricted looking zone and realized that we were definitely going in the wrong direction. Then we backtracked and actually went into the airport, discovering that there were signs pointing towards our desired terminal. So after a rather long and exhausting walk, lugging my really heavy carry-on and checked bag, we arrived at the right place and we even made it about a half hour before boarding time.
Once we headed out our gate to board the plane, we discovered that all of the passengers had to board a shuttle bus to get to the plane because it was way out in the middle of nowhere in the airport. Finally we arrived at our plane, but the crew wasn’t ready for us to board so instead of letting us out of the bus we were shut inside in the crowded and hot space suffocating for a good ten minutes. Anyways, we finally boarded the plane and it was really big, having eight seats to a row, and at long last we arrived in Rome. Then we had to take a half-hour train to Termini Station in the center of the city, which happens to be ideally located right next to our hotel. After what seemed like hours and hour of traveling, we finally checked in to our hotel, called the Champagne Palace.
Then we set out to find something for supper. We ended up giving in to a persuasive guy outside this pizza place who convinced us to eat there, so we got a pizza to split that was very satisfying and the price wasn’t terrible. However, as we were waiting to pay after, some sort of brawl broke out in the front of the place, and I couldn’t see what was happening very well due to being back in a corner, but a guy who came in later had a swollen eye so it certainly got a little too violent for my tastes. Two women, who were also eating there, were so freaked out that they went and hid under the tables next to us, making me a little concerned. Since the brawl happened just outside the door, we were a little nervous as to if it was safe to leave, so we waited for a bit and when these three American guys left, we took the opportunity to follow them out and safely arrived back at our hotel. I definitely won’t be visiting that part of the area to eat anymore. That experience made me want to go back to my comfortable lifestyle in Sevilla, where I never felt afraid to just go out and eat somewhere at night. Not the greatest ending to my Easter Sunday, but things improved a lot in the light of day.
Monday
I woke up at 6:25am in order to get an early start on sightseeing. To see as much as possible in so short a time, early mornings were a necessity. The first stop of the day was to Vatican City since we wanted to beat the long lines by going in the morning. It was amazing! I went up the 320+ steps to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s and the view was definitely worth the climb and price.
Then I wound up in the gift shop on the roof and made a couple purchases before it was all the way back down into the Basilica. I could have spent many more hours just taking everything in; however, I managed to get through seeing everything, including JPII’s tomb and the Pieta, as well as go to Mass and still was out before one. Then we wandered around in the square taking pictures and also tried to figure out where we were to get the tickets for the Wednesday Papal Audience. We knew it was at the Bronze door, but when we found the door, it was mostly blocked by a gate making it seem like people were not supposed to pass through there. So we asked some guy in a suit that seemed like security of sorts, and he said that was the way to get the tickets. We then went back and passed by the gate, with a bunch of people giving us weird stares because it looked like we were going into out of bounds area, and approached the Swiss Guard. As we neared him, another Swiss Guard came over to us looking a little surprised, and we informed him that we were trying to secure tickets for the Audience, to which he gave us some, but I don’t feel like we necessarily went about it in the correct manner. I was just glad we got the tickets though.
The super cool Swiss Guards
Our next stop was to see if the Vatican Museum had a long line, but it ended up being closed for Easter Monday. So that was the first thing on the agenda for Tuesday. Then we got some amazing gelato, (my first official gelato in Italy!), for our lunch before heading back on the metro. Then we went to the Basilica of St. John Lateran and the Holy Stairs. The Holy Stairs was quite the experience, let me tell you. Next we went to the Church of the Holy Cross and got to see an actual piece of Christ’s cross, a couple nails and the inscription that was on the cross. As an extra bonus, St. Thomas’ finger was there as well.
The Holy Stairs
Then we took the metro to the Spanish steps and sat there for a little bit in the sunshine. For Roman Holiday fans, it is where Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn were in part of the movie. How cool!
The Spanish Steps
After that we walked all the way to the Trevi Fountain and I had to throw a penny in of course, then we passed by some shops and wound up trying on fun masks in one of them. Eventually we walked to the Pantheon and took pictures outside it before walking to the entrance and realizing that it had closed five minutes before we arrived. Kind of a bummer, but we planned to go back at an earlier time. Our last stop of the day was to the Piazza Navona where we watched this amazing artist make awesome creations with spray paint. In a matter of five minutes she whipped up artwork that was so detailed and beautiful that I wanted to buy one so bad, but I don’t know how I would have taken it back with me. After staying there longer than we should have, we rushed back to the nearest metro stop in about a half hour in order to get back to Termini Station before the metro closed at nine. I don’t know why it closed so early in Rome, but it was kind of inconvenient. It was extremely packed on the metro due to it being closing time, and when the Termini stop came there was such a mad rush to get off that one guy got completely pushed out and another girl was knocked to the floor and almost trampled. A little scary; I was just glad that I wasn’t standing right next to the doors when they opened.
Tuesday
We got up with the birds again, and managed to avoid a really long wait in line for the Vatican Museum. We only had to wait about a half hour or so, and that was because we were there a good twenty minutes before it opened. It was very neat seeing the Sistine Chapel as well as some cool paintings by artists like Raphael. We also saw a bunch of really old statues, some maps, pope carriages and cars and also Egyptian artifacts including a couple mummies, which were a little gross. We ended up missing a couple rooms on the way through to the Sistine Chapel, so we had to backtrack a little bit, but in the end we saw pretty much everything in about two and a half hours.
A cool hall full of old maps in the Vatican Museum
Spiral Staircase in the Museum
Our next stop was to Santo Spirito Church that Jenny discovered when she was in Rome and we made it just in time because after about ten minutes a nun bolted the door and had to let us out afterwards. After that we went to the Roman Forum and the Colosseum which was a little pricey, but since we got to see both, it was worth it. The Forum was basically a bunch of ancient roman ruins that had some cool pillars and arches scattered about, but it was interesting. The Colosseum was really neat though causing me to take way too many pictures. After that we went to St. Peter in Chains Church that had the chains used to bind St. Peter and then we went to the St. Paul Outside the Wall Basilica that had the chains used to bind St. Paul as well as his tomb. It was definitely a cool church to visit, and as an added bonus, all along the top of the walls are the images of all the popes since St. Peter through to Pope Benedict XVI. From there we went to the Basilica of Mary Major which was the last of the four major basilicas in Rome that we had yet to visit. It also happened to be less than five minutes away from our hotel, so after a visit there, we were able to just walk back to the hotel and relax for a little bit before heading out again to access the internet at an internet shop in order to print out a confirmation ticket for a tour in London. Overall it was a successful day in regards to sightseeing, but also very exhausting and I was dead on my feet by the time we were done for the day.
Roman Forum
Some beautiful flowers in the forum
The Colosseum
An outside view of the Colosseum
Wednesday
I went to the Papal Audience and saw the Pope! We managed to get seats in the front row of the second section and he went right by us twice. It was so cool seeing him and being so close! None of my pictures came out that great because the ones that aren’t blurry are the ones that he is not looking in my direction, but it was still an incredible experience.
The Pope!
In the afternoon we got pizza for lunch because that is the Italian thing to do, and then we went to the Pantheon which used to be a Roman temple of sorts but was converted into a church. It was neat to see and it is probably the only church I’ve ever seen that has a hole intentionally in the roof. From there we stopped for some gelato, because in Italy gelato is an absolute must, and then we went church exploring. We visited a church that I believe might have been called Minerva, but I’m not a hundred percent sure about that. It was huge and beautiful, like a lot of churches in Rome, and the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena was there. It also had a chapel dedicated to my patron St. Rose of Lima, which was sweet. Then we visited a little church that we passed along the way to St. Ignatius, that I’m not sure of its name, but it was pretty. St. Ignatius was also huge and beautiful and had the tombs of some saints who I didn’t recognize. Then we visited another church called Gesu and it was also cool and had a couple of hands as relics, one being from St. Francis Xavier and the other I couldn’t find a name with. We then stumbled across another church called St. Luigi that was really huge and had some impressive paintings as well as a chapel dedicated to St. Cecilia who is my confirmation saint. Our last church of the day was as we were heading back to the metro and we encountered this huge church called St. Andrew. It had the tombs of some saints, but I don’t believe any were very well known.
Ceiling of Pantheon
Once we were back on the metro, we stopped at a shop near the Vatican to see if any good photos were taken of us near the Pope. Unfortunately, both the pictures with me in them had my face totally covered by the camera of the girl standing beside me. Even if I don’t have a picture of me with the Pope, it was awesome being there and I have pictures of him anyway.
For supper we went to a relatively fancy restaurant that the receptionist recommended, because we had to at least once get pasta in Italy. So I got spaghetti, bread and water for around ten euros. Not a great deal, but I couldn’t leave Italy without eating some truly Italian food other than gelato.
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