Thursday, Apr 16: Vatican City

We got up early, ate our breakfast (delivered to our hotel room!) and got in the Alpha Romeo one more time for the dreaded drive to the Rome Termini train station. The drive was just as expected - pure chaos. Todd got us there in one piece with really frazzled nerves. We found the rental car counter, waited 30 minutes for someone to show up, and then were told we had to drive around the block. We survived that and lugged our bags to the Concepcionistas Misioneras De La Ensenanza Casa De Peregrinos (Sisters of the Immaculate Conception House for Pilgrims). Say that fast.

It was the cheapest place with available rooms I could find. The nuns were from an order started in Spain and had responded to my emails only in Spanish. I had wondered if that would be a problem. Here is the answer: Yes. I went up to the desk and asked if they wanted to speak Italian or Spanish. One nun replied "espanol" and started talking incredibly fast. I had three years of Spanish in high school, but that was a looooong time ago. I understood maybe 5%. The nun motioned for Deb and Allen to stay, took Todd and I up to our room and started talking and motioning in circles. Then she closed the door and left. I understood "5 minutes," "clean" and that she was motioning to the floor. Were the rooms cheap because we had to clean the floor ourselves? What would happen if we left the room before 5 minutes? What had I gotten us into? We bravely left the room and saw that there was a maid in the room next to ours, cleaning the floor of what would be Deb & Allen's room. Mystery solved.

Back at the desk, an older nun gave us a map and started drawing all over it, circling sights and saying "Pppt ppt ppt ppt ppt" for what we assumed was the bus route. She was talking to us in Italian while the first nun behind kept interrupting with "Espanol! Espanol!" Sisters - it doesn't matter! I don't understand either! The rooms were sparse but big and decorated with art. Ours had the same "Holy Family on a Picnic" poster that my parents have. The window overlooked a garden courtyard.

We decided to get the big stuff done first: St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. So we got on the metro/subway - Deb & Allen's first official subway ride at 50-something. Write that in their baby books! The metro stop was still a 10 minute walk away from St. Peter's. We passed vendors hawking statues and rosaries. We passed people promising to skip the line for the church with their special tour. We scoffed at that, line for the museum, yes, but one for the church? We got to the square and saw a line from the right side of the church all the way along the "arms" of the square to the opposite end. It moved quickly, but I still had time to read the whole Rick Steves "St. Peter's Basilica Tour." I promptly forgot most of it and relayed facts to the group that were only slightly accurate. :-)


There were a lot more people in the basilica than Todd and I saw on the last trip. We were awed by the size of everything. There were baby angels the size of adults, 9 foot statues, 7-story altar canopies, etc. We took blurry photos of the Pieta, had some moments of adoration, looked at sizes of various churches marked on the floor, rubbed St. Peter's toes, etc. Then we went down in to the crypt and saw the tombs of many popes. It was touching to see John Paul II's grave strewn with flowers and a crowd of people around it.

Next on the to-do list was lunch. We ate sandwiches & pizza at a kiosk while Deb fed pigeons. Then we hustled to get in line for the Vatican Museum. When Todd and I went with the school, we stood in line for an extremely long time. (Wikipedia has a nice photo of what the line can look like.) This time we - gasp - walked right in! We weren't sure if we would have enough time at the museum, so we didn't linger much and skipped Egyptian and Etruscan displays. We saw the museum's first acquired statue, Lacoon. We saw Nero's huge purple birdbath. We saw the ceilings painted to look like they were 3-D carvings. We saw the gold ceiling modeled after our dining room ceiling. We saw the huge tapestry where Jesus' eyes follow you around the room. It was neat to see the Raphael painting School of Athens, with Socrates and Plato discussing philosophy, countered with a painting on the opposite wall of a theological discussion on the Eucharist. We even saw a painting of the miracle of Bolsena/Orvieto. I was glad that we had a guide book with us, it is interesting to find out the stories behind the art.


The Vatican Museum tour culminates in the Sistine Chapel. We stood in there for a long time, craning our necks to take in it all. There were two spots left to show how the ceiling looked before cleaning. Wow, it was dark!

We skipped the last rooms of paintings to go back to St. Peter's for mass. It was a blessing to attend mass at the main altar. Even though it was in Italian. After that we went to confession. (The priest spoke English with a Asian accent. Just like at home!) It was amazing how empty the church got after 5 pm.



For dinner we went to a Rick recommended place. Deb ordered chicken and rosemary roasted potatoes. She thought it was the best meal ever! (Did we ever figure out if Delicioso! is Italian as well as Spanish?) Todd ordered the fettuccine with the house sauce of cream, tomatoes and orange. It really tasted like orange. I ordered spinach/ricotta ravioli in a walnut cream sauce. The spinach tasted like spinach. :-( Allen ordered a veal escalope. If it was suppertime, there was a 74% chance Allen had ordered the veal escalope. We washed it down with a creamy tiramisu. Mmmmmmm.

We walked back to the Metro and returned to the convent. Todd hadn't packed in enough that day, so he and I went hunting for Nutella and finished the day by praying in the convent chapel.