Jenny’s daughter joined our travel in Croatia later than her other children. As a result she had planned to travel with her boyfriend to Italy. Jenny and I joined them for a few days in Rome.
As it had been the first time that her daughter had been to Rome—and it had been over 25 years for both Jenny and I—we took a more standard tourist approach with getting a Rome Card and setting up visits to the Coliseum and Vatican, along side plans to wander the city and take in the culture and history.
It was very warm in Rome for the days we visited. I read after our visit that a guide had died, in part from the heat, the following day at the Vatican. Despite the heat and challenges we did get to see the beauty of Old Rome. The edge of the Coliseum was visible from our AirBnB, which made it a relatively short walk to get to the site. We chose to do an audio tour with two of us sharing some of the information we had with the others. Although tracking where we were on the tour with the audio guide was a challenge we did get some substantive information to better understand what we were seeing.
We also wandered the streets around the Coliseum, taking in the Victor Emmanuel II monument and the Basillica Santa Maria in Arcoelli and the Capitoline Hill. We ate a delicious five course meal at a restaurant nearby our apartment.
The following day we had tickets to the Vatican. As this tour started around noon we wandered the city on our way to the Museum and Crypt of the Capuchin Friars. It was an interesting stop as this was the site of a Franciscan monastery that gave a lot of history of the Catholic order but was also home to a crypt where one member had reorganized the bones of the deceased in their crypts into artistic patterns. It felt both sinister and impressive all at once to walk through the five chambers where this art work with human remains had been placed.
On the tour of the Vatican we went with a group of around twenty people. Having a guide was helpful to provide context to what we were seeing. Although it had been 26 years since I last visited, it felt like I got more out of this tour than I had simply wandering through as a tourist in my early twenties. The tour allowed for about an hour to visit through the various museums with the guide providing frequent input on items of note, about a fifteen minute stop in the Sistine Chapel, and a final stop at the Basilica of St. Peter. Definitely the magnificence of the art collection and historical artifacts was apparent. Being the Jubilee year we walked into St. Peter’s through the entrance that would apparently absolve us of our sins (if you believe this). I will admit that I did it primarily to get a closer view of Michelangelo’s Pieta statue and to see the resting place of Pope John Paul II. I was glad for the visit as it does feel like a place that everyone should see if only to understand the historical power of Catholic Church.
We wrapped up our time in Rome wandering, allowing Jenny and her daughter to do some shopping, and taking in the sites that we came across. This included the Pantheon, Hadrian’s Temple, the Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain among a few others lesser sites. It was interesting to see the sites of Rome again after a quarter century gap. Definitely Rome remains one of the great cities of the world where you could spent much more than the three days we had and still have more to see.
The Spanish Steps.
BorealHiker 