June 2015 – Page 5 – David and Yanmei

June 14, 2015June 14, 2015

Vatican

The next day I wanted to visit the Vatican. Yanmei was still exhausted from the visit to Rome so she decided not to come, after all it is just a museum and church. I booked a tour at 8:45am so I left early. Unfortunately without Yanmei to navigate I made a mistake at the confusing part and got on the highway, which took me way off course. I pulled over and started to use my phone as a GPS. I thought it took me to the parking garage, but it turned out to be the wrong garage for some shopping center. I left there and eventually found the outdoor parking area we used the previous day, but it was completely full.

By then I knew I'd missed the tour and I was super frustrated. I was going to give up and go back to the hotel when the tour company called to ask where I was. When I explained, they said there was another tour at 10:15am I could join. So I circled around again to try to find the parking garage and ended up in a garage for IKEA. Then I switched to the backup plan which was to drive closer to Rome and park in the lot for a large mall near a metro station. I finally made it to the tour office outside the Vatican just in time for the 10:15am tour, over 1.5 hours late from what I'd planned. Thankfully the rest of the day would be a major improvement on the morning.

Courtyard of the museum with St. Peter's in the background

It was another skip-the-line tour, and it was worth it because the line was huge. Also our guide was very good and I think that is really helpful in a place like the Vatican museums. First of all he was American, which helps. One of Yanmei's complaints about guides we've had from Cairo to Barcelona is they usually have strong accents and she can't understand them, so she feels like she doesn't get any value out of it. I'm think she would have been able to understand the guide today, oh well. Second he had a lot of good knowledge and mixed in some humor as well. Third he skipped all the crappy modern art sections and focused on the classical and Raphael rooms.

A roman sculpture on display since 1506, said to be Michaelangelo's favorite piece. He used the hair and face from this for Christ's in The Last Judgement fresco in the Sistine Chapel

Another classical piece Michaelangelo admired. He based Christ's torso in The Last Judgement on this.

Hall of Maps. You can see how crowded it was.

No pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel, although I saw several people sneaking them. As I said in the post about the Louvre I don't see much point in photographing artwork. However I'm glad I took pics of the two statues above because now I can compare them after seeing The Last Judgement and see he really did use those as inspiration.

Christ from The Last Judgement. Photo from Internet.

St. Peter's square being set up for some big event

That completed the tour, then I had free time to go into St. Peter's basilica. I was tired from the stress and all the walking so I decided not to take the extra tour to the top of the dome. I did go down into the crypt though. Also saw Michaelangelo's La Pieta.

Pope John Paul II's remains on the main floor

Finally I decided to head back to the hotel, but not before one quick stop along the way.

The Spanish Steps, currently ruined by the car billboard at the summit

Now I feel like I've completed my goals for this trip. Completed the big three, Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, Sistine Chapel.

I'm kind of surprised Yanmei doesn't enjoy Rome more. Every time you go around a corner there is another monument, fountain, church or historic building. She has been here before, but she told me she was sick for several days so didn't get to see much. But when I got back to the hotel she said she had a nice time walking around exploring the small town and shopping a bit. I actually think we're both getting somewhat burnt out on traveling and sightseeing, but I couldn't pass up the Vatican today.

-David

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June 14, 2015

Rome

We decided to go to Rome. I never plan to drive in Rome, except when I return the car. To get there we planned to drive the car to the end of the subway, park there and take the metro into town. The station is about 15-20 minutes drive. The last little bit right before the station is a confusing set of turns. The hotel proprietor printed out a special map for this part. He also mentioned the entrance to the parking garage is tricky to find.

With Yanmei navigating we managed to get there without trouble, but we didn't find the entrance to the parking garage. We could see it behind the station, but all the roads seeming to go there were one way coming out. We pulled into the free outside parking area and by a miracle found a spot as someone was leaving.

The Rome subway is surprisingly undeveloped compared to the other cities we've visited. There is an A and B line and an airport train, and that is it. They are working on a third line but it is 15 years behind schedule so far (was supposed to open in 2000). At least it is easy to find your way around. Paris and Seoul have apps that tell you the best way to get between two stations, because there are usually multiple options.

First stop, the Colosseum.

This is basically the view you get as you exit the metro station

To go inside you can either line up and pay €12, or you can join a skip-the-line tour group for a higher price which also includes a tour guide. We joined a group and it cost €30 each, but was well worth it not to wait in a long line. It was a hot day. The guide was basically useless, providing very little information I didn't know. The one useful bit was that she said all the parts made from brick were restorations from the 1800s, only the large stone blocks are original. Unfortunately the majority is restoration. The Colosseum was used as a quarry for about 1000 years after they stopped holding games, meaning they dismantled it to use the stone in other buildings. Unfortunately it is a common theme.

Original arch, restored brick arch on the left

After the tour we had some free time to look around, before a second tour of the Palatine hill (included with our €30). Luckily the second guide was much better. Palatine hill is where the palace of the emperors was. It was five stories tall, but each story was over 60 feet, so the scope of it was massive. Unfortunately it is mostly buried or gone. We walked for a long way on what the guide said was the third level. It must have dwarfed the scope of places like Versailles.

We ended the tour overlooking a spectacular view of the Roman Forum.

Ruins of the Forum with the Colosseum in the distance

We walked down and looked around the Forum for a while.

After a while the sun and heat started to get to us so we trudged back to the Metro and headed back to our hotel.

– David

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June 12, 2015June 12, 2015

Castel Gandolfo, Nemi, Rocca di Papa

The first day we decided to drive around to some small downs nearby. The proprietor of our hotel was very enthusiastic about this idea and gave us lots of recommendations. There are two small lakes in the area and some of the views are supposed to be great.

We got off to a late start and stopped at a restaurant in Castel Gandolfo that he recommended.

Great view, but as I've found in other restaurants with great views, the food left something to be desired.

Close up of the town, Rocca di Papa, across the lake

We didn't find much in Nemi so we continued to Rocca di Pappa. At one point the road did a spiral to gain altitude, which was interesting, but we didn't get a picture.

Ancient Romans used to build no more than seven stories, a tradition that is often kept today, because who wants to climb more than seven flights of stairs to get home?

We found a church with a cemetery on the side of the hill. Almost every tomb had fresh flowers.

We kept going up hill until we were forced to go down a very narrow road. It was so narrow I was worried we'd scrape the side view mirrors. The picture it is already widening in the picture below.

Alternate view of church we were approaching down the steep hill

We found a spot to park on the street. We saw it was pay parking and you had to buy a ticket at the pay station, so we went to pay. For some reason Yanmei took a photo of that. I thought it said €0.80/hr, so I put in two Euro to be safe, but I must have misunderstood something because it gave me a ticket good until 9:30am the next day.

As I was doing this a young girl ran up to us and said something in Italian. Yanmei asked if she wanted to help us and if she spoke English. She said “no” and ran off. I went back to the car to put the ticket there and a local polizia was already standing at my car writing. I showed him my paid ticket and he let me off, lol. Maybe that was what the girl was telling us. Anyway that polizia was diligent, later I saw him standing beside a spot as a guy was trying to parallel park into it, ready to start writing as soon as he finished.

Yanmei with a couple of kids in the park

Finally we headed back to our room where we could watch the sun set over Rome.

-David

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