Rome Weekender 5

Day 3 : Vatican and Trevi fountain

It was tough to get up in the morning. All our legs were paining. Started our day’s errand after breakfast, around 10!

Took Metro to Termini from Pretorio and changed to line A towards Battistini to get down at Ottaviano. The weather was cloudy, and had started looking like it could drizzle anytime. Rome, we had heard, will have rains during mid Nov till mid Dec.

The Skip-the-line teams caught us out of the metro station itself. Their theory was simple: normal route takes 1-1.5 hours for the queue for ticket for entry, 15 Euros goes for the fees, and then you are on your own. Now you skip the long lines (there was the catch, still there was a shorter line which was 15-20 mins long), a guide to take you through the history of history and importance of each part, and it costs 45 per person.

I had already planned to go with them as it had that knowledge with value for money. My only concern was if they will charge for Pranav too… but he was free.

The person who ‘got’ us took us to their office, we paid the money, and then another person took over as we joined a group, and we walked to the centre of Vatican. We crossed the ‘border’ in less than a minute walk, with no immigration checks.

The real guide was waiting for our group to join a group already there. So now, it was some 10-15 people in the group. She talked about the St.Peters, the pillars around the centre forming two semi circles. It looked huge and grand ! A huge Christmas tree was getting ready in front of us, with cranes around it doing the decorations !

After a briefing there, with all of us having an earpiece to tune in to the mic of our guide, took us to a souvenir shop and ‘gave’ us time for 15 mins to shop there.

Now, it started looking like going to an agent in front of RTO office for a learners licence in India J.

The guide started the tour again at 11:20. We walked outside of the border wall (now actually in Italy), walked around for entry through a side entrance. There was a queue there as well, it was drizzling now.

We waited in rain for some 20-25 minutes there and the guide had vanished. It was not as bad as I thought. This entrance is officially for groups. But the officials let the guides come with ‘groups’ take little more freedom than the normal groups.

At last we got our tickets and entered around 12. She took us to the top floor, and a lobby there used by guides to explain with some paper slides in a white board. There was a 30 minutes session on what is inside, how Michelangelo became a favorite for the Popes as he was very religious ad did all those works without asking for money. And Da Vinci was money minded, as he asked to be paid for the works.

But to leave the lighter side, there were a lot of things explained on how the Popes used to build their own part in Vatican, and trying to make it unique to become memorable themselves. Sistine Chapel was one of the examples. Again, she explained on what we will see inside Sistine Chapel, she took us through the Central painting, and the ceiling ones (many of them are famous).

Then, it was a fast walk through the museum corridors, the painting on carpets/ old canvas, the paintings on the ceiling looking like a 3D picture. She also explained the technique used by Michelangelo to paint one layer and let it dry to paint another layer on it, which may be the reason for the 3D feel.

Photos were not banned anywhere except the Sistine chapel. But in many places flash was banned (thanks to the ISO technology). But, people were using flashes to the frustration of the guards who sometime caught one or two and shouting,’ who is his guide?’ J.

The guide reminded of the instructions she had told for Sistine Chapel in her lecture, and left us in front of it. We entered, a small chapel with little high ceiling. It was crowded and most of the people were flashing through photography was banned. I also broke the law to take snaps, but without flash, if flash hurting the paints is the concern.

To come out of it, there is a door through which the crowd exits, but we were instructed to spot another tricky door on the opposite corner. The password for the security to open that door was to tell him the guide’s name or some mark of her (luckily, or unluckily for her, our guide had a fracture in her nose which helped us). Out of it, many of the group were there, but not the guide ! Some of us started even seaching her inside the corridors.

As earlier, she appeared after sometime. And she appeared to just tell us the way to enter St.Peter’s. She also gave us a brief of the three chapels inside, and spot the ceiling painted by Michelangelo.

Spotted a door, wonderfully depicting Jesus’s story, but there was a twist after his resurrection on the third day! The next one showed Pope standing with two juniors around one bowing with a candle!

St.Peter’s was massive, as big as looked from outside! We walked inside, snaps, it was a memorable experience inside the Sistine Chapel as well as inside the St.Peter’s.

The guards in Vatican still wear the uniform which was designed by Michelangelo in 15^th century! A colourful dress, beautifully simple!

We were done, by 2:45. Pranav was already gone crossing his limits of tolerance. We left the country of Vatican, looking for some food. An old man tried to invite us offering for ‘hot pizzas’. We ignored him and went ahead. Got a small shop which gave us some pasta, and Pranav picked some gelato as well. Later we saw the old man sitting in a panini cart, with the same ‘pizza’ which spoiled our lunch on the first day! Lucky we said No...

We walked out of the little country of Vatican, through the main entrance. An important thing I noticed was the simplicity inside the premises. Though the buildings were all grand and lavishly sculptured/painted, people were all down-to-Earth and simple. The sisters (probably the visiting nuns) also waiting in the long queue for entry tickets. The priests, nuns, inside the different areas we visited also were very humble and soft-spoken. This is inspite of the provocations of people breaking the rules to be followed in a Spiritual place. At the end of the day, I really appreciate the warmth and welcome Vatican provided.

Out of Vatican, we crossed the river over the bridge facing St.Angelo( the bridge is also named ‘Ponte St.Angelo’). It started getting dark slowly. Walked through some areas which has some museums, and around a place which the map said ‘Augustus Caesar’s Tomb’. But we could see nothing noticeable there than an unmaintained premises, with a broken gate! And none seems to take notice of the same as well. Almost the same state as the Domus Aurea...

After more than an hour walk, we reach Trevi Fountain. One of the most famous fountains in the World, Trevi’s water source was an aqueduct from as early as 19 BC. And it was just a source of water for the city, not a fountain. The current 26 metres high and 20 metres wide design is built in late 18^th century.

We had a gelato near Trevi, a wonderful small shop with so many varieties of ice creams! There also most of the employees were Bangladeshis with an Italian boss.

The fountain was pretty crowded, with tourists. There were couple of photographers too, who would take a digital snap and make a print with a small- battery operated printer. Then there was another old man, who was walking here and there with a thin-long stick. In the crowd, he was trying to get the coins people threw in to the fountain with that stick! He is little less stupid than I first thought, he had put some chewing gum at the dipping end J. And, he was wondering why the coins are not sticking to the gum when the gum is sticky outside water! Only if he knew chewing gum loses it sticky nature when wet J.

We, then, walked to Barberini metro station. It was Monday and only now realized that Rome is not a museum city, but a modern metro city too. The trains were very crowded and packed that we couldn’t even enter a couple of them. But I was amazed to see the next one coming in as one just left the platform, with just a few seconds gap! Took the third metro, which was a little less crowded. We could just move in with the crowd and stand, to Termini and walked back to the hotel around 6:30.

We were all so tired, except Pranav ! He was so much troubling while walking, saying his legs are paining. But back in hotel, he was happily jumping in the spring bed ! The bed was in a corner, and the French window had a marble slab. Pranav at one point lost control and fell down with the back of his head hitting the slab !

We kept the bleeding head under water stream… the cut was about 5 cm long, and deep enough that I could see the flesh. The bleeding stopped, Pranav also was back to normal, and slept as well in a few minutes.