So since I am a few days passed Rome, I’m going to give you all 48 hours at once. We got up early in Capri and hopped back on our mini buses to Marina Grande. Once again, the buses were jam packed, but luckily Kim and I were on early enough I got to sit on the front of the bus. This old woman (pictured below) just intentionally whacked Kim over the head.
We made it back onto the boat from Capri to Naples with no problems. We went back and worth debating between taking a cab or walking to the train station with our luggage. (Mostly we were starving and were hoping to find food along the way.) Half way through our walk (maybe we weren’t even half way), we took a 10 Euro taxi to the train station even though the man said there were no trains to Roma that day. We had no other choice except to still go to the train station and figure out what he was talking about when we got there. Well, as he said, the trains to Roma were not guaranteed because the public transportation workers/ union in Roma decided to go on Strike. We magically arrived at the train station in time to catch a 9:45a train that happened to stop in Rome on its way to Milan (good thing we found that cab, and even better that we happened to have 88 Euro on us to pay in cash because the credit card was not working, and the train was leaving in 5 minutes.) This train was much nicer than the previous (like that was difficult to achieve), but was more like the Chicago Amtrak trains.
Once we arrived in Rome, we intended on taking a bus or train to the hotel, but again, not public transportation service. Because of this, the line for a taxi outside the train station was ridiculous. Still starving (btw). So we started walking, thinking we could pick up a cab a little further down. That definitely didn’t happen. So we continued walking. We tried to get on a hop-on, hop-off tour bus, since we intended on using it the next day anyway, but they wouldn’t let us on with our luggage.. (though for future reference, Roma City Tour—a green bus—would allow you to have luggage on. Just in case you are ever in a bind like we were, it’d be good to know.) Anyway, we decided we just needed to truck it. 4 km later with our wheel luggage and overpacked carry-luggage, we arrived at Sant’ Angelo Hotel (great find Mrs. Grippo!).
While our room was still being prepared, we found a very cute little self-service restaurant (my favorite!) to have vegetables, salad, roasted potatoes, and everything else yummy you could ever want. These self-service restaurants are the Europeans version of fast food. They display everything they have in their clear covered counters, and you choose whatever you like. Some places consist of lots fruits and hot veggies, salads, and pastas… others (the more unhealthy ones) have pizza, sandwiches, aranchini, ect. But don’t worry, healthy or not, they ALL serve gelato.
Anyway, our hotel room was nice, breakfast was included, and there was always crackers, saltines, and nutello on call in the dining room. The only downfall… the blow dryer was similar to a vacuum. At least it ran consistently (unlike our blow dryer in Sorrento. You had to hold a button down to keep the air flowing— again the European conservationists. Kim is actually suing the hotel for tendonitis in her thumb.) Oh and at night, as we would find out… the outside wooden doors was humungo and heavy and similar to the doors where the Wizard of Oz resides.
We showered and got ready for the day and night time activities. We had a plan. No wine, no limonchello, and an early night Friday. (After 8 straight days of go, go, go, our bodies were not happy.) So we headed out to the Spanish Steps which were located very near our house. On our way we stopped at the Trevia Fountain, threw in our coins, and made our wishes. (I think the only wish is supposed to be a return trip to Roma, but I made a wish anyway.)
The Spanish Steps were beautiful, and a great place to hang out.
Can you find me? Where’s Kelly?
Rick Steves recommended watching the sunset their, so that was exactly our plan. We resisted our urge to be drinking wine on the Spanish Steps, and went on a hunt for candy instead. We found a candy stand owned by a Pakistani man, who was charging 3 Euro for 100 kg of candy. He wouldn’t let us pick our candy, and overloaded our bag of candy trying to charge is some 10 Euro. When we told him we didn’t want that much, he wouldn’t put it back, and started yelling (F*** You) to us. Needless to say, Kim and I did not give him our business.
The search continued as we wandered through the streets. We found another stand selling candy, nuts, and seeds for only 2 euro/100kg. True to our pact to avoid “salty” nuts post Barcelona, we each had the man put 2 euro worth of candy in a bag for the Spanish Steps.
We also found this cute restaurant that would be sweet to have some wine at on top of the Spanish Steps.
Afterwards, we checked out a couple of the famous Piazzas in Rome. Along our strolls, we discovered a new love, Pistacchio Limonchello! What? 1 or 2 samples weren’t going to kill us.
The first one, Piazza del Popolo. There we unveiled another supposedly dead Hollywood star.. Michael Jackson. (This was before sunset.. then the steps.. then the next piazza.)
Piazza Navona was full of street performers and beautiful scenery. One little girl was performing ballet. I think she made the most money.
As we agreed on, we headed home for an early night, which was, really, I think, was about 2 am.
July 10th! Our big day of tourism in Rome. We started off the Vatican at 9am! Thank you to Kim’s coworker for the inside scoop on buying your Vatican Tickets in advance. By 8:45am, there was already a 3-4 hour line waiting to get in. I over heard someone mention something about having tickets, so I followed them. Low and behold, our “golden tickets” allowed us to jump the entire line and walk right in the Vatican. Pretty much the first people in on Saturday morning.
The Vatican is unbelievable. The size, the beauty, the amount of artwork. Pictures cannot even capture what we experienced first hand. Apparently, if you were to look at every piece of artwork in the Vatican, it would take you 14-15 years. (Kim and I were ease dropping on the tour groups.)
I wanted to dive right into the Sistine Chapel when we arrived, but Kim told me we couldn’t see it first. After seeing the Sistine Chapel.. I know why. Although there is beautiful art everywhere, there is no comparison to the Sistine Chapel. It is probably to the visitors’ benefit that there is no photography inside because, again, it just would not do it justice.
What was equivalent in beauty, yet incomparable in art, was St. Peter’s Basilica.
After spending some time admiring the masterpiece of art, praying, and searching for the keyhole that apparently was not in the church (thanks Giorgio!), we decided to go up to the Cupola of the church. Hint: If you are ever going to do this, which I recommend, follow these guidelines. There are two lines—one for the Cupola and one for the tombs. The line for the tombs is much shorter and quicker, and both lines lead to the same area for the ticket office. There is only one person handing out tickets! I mean we were packed like Sardines in the line before the ticket office, and when we finally got thru the first gate, we had to wait in line at the ticket office. When we finally got to the ticket office, the man yelled at us for having crinkled euros and made us straighten them out before handing them to him. When Kim tried to say something to her, he yelled and lectured! Thank God we didn’t get kicked out because that was at least a 30 minute endeavor.
Now it was part 2—the climb. For 2 extra Euro, Kim and I took the lift that takes you up the first 250 stairs to the top of the dome inside the church. Afterwards, there is an additional 350 stairs to the very top (and a panoramic view of Rome.) They warned people who were pregnant, or had heart problems. They should have gave more of a warning. While this was an incredible experience, going up these stairs was no walk in the park. The stairs were extremely narrow (I mean any larger sized person wouldn’t fit even), and they spiraled up for a bit. Then the walls started slanting, and at one point we needed to use a rope. During our trip up 2 women came down the stairs panicking as if they were having a heart attack, but just so scared from the climb. That was freaky. When we made it to the top.. it was worth every step
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In line, on our way up, and at the top, we made friends with some boys from Australia. (I swear—Australians are just not working right now!) As originally told there names were Chad, Alex, and something Australian. After finding out that Chad’s name was actually Frank, we called them “shady.” Though speaking perfect English, they had no idea what I meant by that term. When I tried to describe it by being “sketchy”, Kim noted that that term is also American slang. The Australians thought it was a word that surfers use. Haha.
Meanwhile—Did I mention that it was 90 degrees by 9am? (In the Vatican we had to wear sweaters the entire time.) Needless to stay it was a hot start to an extremely hot day. As the day continued, and the temperatures rose to at least 100 degrees, Kim and I were exhausted. We hopped on the tour bus with one destination in mind—the Colosseum. This was very cool. Just like the movies picture it. You feel like you are really in the Roman times at this venue.
(PS—Another wedding spotted near the Colosseum.)
We hopped back on the bus tour with the hotel in sight. However it seemed our bus went in circles since we passed the capitol building/city hall about 3 times. We decided it would be faster to walk. It might have been if we knew where we were going. We finally made it back after about 45 minutes. And got ready for the evening—our final night in Rome.
We started to head to Campo D’Fiori which was a recommended hot spot. Along the way we found a carnival/ mini, local festival. Of course Kim and I had to porousse through the shopping stands where we both purchased dresses, sunglasses, and blank DVDs for Europe pictures. With our remaining 5 euro we purchased a Bicardi Breezer Lime to share for our 10 minute walk back. A quick outfit change for Kim and now we were ready (we think).
We decided to eat at the actual restaurant Campo D’Fiori. Great pick (Thanks Rick Steves!) We had a half bottle of Falanghina (for our last night together alone) and a side of pesto (no bread)! Kim and I had been wanting pesto our whole trip, and it took us 10 days to get it!! We ate it with everything—our massive bowl of tomatoes, or grilled vegetables, my spinach omelet, and Kim”s seafood. When we finished our delicious meal, a man who worked there (our translator for our waiter), brought us two Mango-something shots. Then, our restaurant closed, and joined forces with the bar next door. We made friends with a different waiter/ bartender from both places, Evan (pronounced E-vin), who continued to give us shots and drinks all night. He was going to take us on his Vespa, but he didn’t get off until 2am and we didn’t think we wanted to be out that long.
After we finished some very strong drinks, we wanted to wander the area. These two other boys, very young boys—22, stopped us to chat. I don’t know how we got wrapped up in this but we some how lost a bet that it wasn’t actually his birthday, so we had to have a drink with them. This was just torture. They didn’t understand how they were just so young. We finally were able to remove ourselves from the situation and head home.
Time for bed and on to our next adventures in Florence in the morning.
Other observations/notes from the day(s):
- Grocery stores do not exist in Rome
- It was at least 100 degrees both days!
- Kim almost got taken out by a Vespa
- When you are drinking in the middle of a bar in Italy, everyone’s conversation seems like gibberish.
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