I was up early Friday morning and just couldn't get back to sleep. After tossing and turning for a while, I realized Mom was up too, and the two of us headed up to the top deck of the ship to watch the sunrise.
It was already warm and the forecast told us we would be touring in yet another 100 degree day. But everything quiet and still in the wee hours of the morning and everyone should experience an Italian sunrise at least once in their life!
After a tearful parting from our ship and the crew, we boarded our bus for our final tour day. The moment I got on the bus I sensed trouble. The curtains were all open and the bus was not running. That meant that the scorching sun was already beating full force into a bus that did not have any air conditioning running. For most of the trip, my tendency to get motion sick was managed easily by a Scopalamine patch behind my ear. However, this was not nearly enough to withstand the winding roads in a crazy hot bus on the way to Rome. It was not longer before I was in trouble. I was white as a ghost and hyperventilating. I couldn't feel my fingers or toes and I thought I was going to vomit. I grabbed a plastic bag and made my way to the front of the bus, where some of the other passengers helped me with some cold, wet cloths. We asked the bus driver to turn up the air, and by the time we arrived at the Vatican I was feeling much better.
The first surprising thing to me was that Vatican City was completely walled off from the rest of Rome. The next thing that surprised me was the sheer number of people. There were hundreds of people gathered outside of the walls of the City. In my mind, I envisioned this being a quiet, reverent visit without lines or any notice of the people around us. Instead, this was more like a line at a DisneyWorld attraction. We learned quickly why the tour guides held umbrella handles with different colored cloths up high; It was because once you got into the great mass of people, it was nearly impossible to see the rest of your group, let alone your tour guide.
We began our shuffle through the halls of the Vatican Museum. Kristin likened it to being at Best Buy on Black Friday. It was a pretty good analogy. There were people everywhere. It was not even really possible to stop and look at anything, let alone really take a picture. What we could see was certainly beautiful and I think the ceilings were some of the most impressive.
After what seemed like miles of hallway, we came to our first outdoor area which gave us our first glimpse of St. Peter's Basilica.
Again, we continued through the masses of people, trying to stay together and keep up with our tour guide when we arrived to the entrance of the Sistine Chapel. I never really realized before that the Sistine Chapel's main purpose is to house the council voting in the event that a new Pope would need to be chosen. It is from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel where the white or black smoke comes out, indicating to the faithful whether or not an agreement has been made. Even while Michelangelo was painting the famous ceiling, he was required to keep the scaffolding off to the side in case the chapel was needed for its most important and sacred duty. Those who entered the chapel must be wearing modest clothing and there was to be no talking or photographing when inside. Of course, just like on Black Friday, there were people who felt that the rules didn't apply to them. As we were herded over to the left hand side of the chapel, we saw several cameras out and one man even knelt down in front of us to take a picture so that the guards wouldn't see him. While I was busy giving him my stinkiest stink eye, our group disappeared. The dull roar of people's talking began and the guards yelled "Silencio!" over a loudspeaker, silencing the crowd for only a moment. I looked to the two doors to my left and my right and saw the edge of Grandma head through the door on the left. I pulled Mom in that direction and we went as quickly as we could, trying to get caught up with the rest of our group. But once we found Grandma and Michelle, we realized that they were lost too, along with about 5 other members of the group. We hurried back to the Chapel, but were directed by a guard to go back around and start our tour of the Chapel over again. Without nothing what else to do, we obeyed, hoping that our group was waiting for us on the other end of the Chapel. However, once we got through a second time our group was still nowhere to be found. We kept thinking our group would be waiting for us somewhere, but there were so many people and it was just impossible to find anyone familiar in a sea of ten thousand. Finally one of our group members was able to connect with the rest of our group on their phone and someone came back to get us. It was about an hour and a half of being lost and none of these places were air conditioned. It was hot, confusing, and frustrating.
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| Interior of the Sistine Chapel |
Once reunited with our tour guide, we went on a fast forward tour of the rest of the place. We went into St. Peter's Basilica, the stunning home of Michelangelo's Pieta, and the burial place of St. Peter, as well as many other Popes, including John Paul II. The architecture is stunning and I can only imagine the beauty and holiness in celebrating a Mass there.
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| Looking up into the dome |
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| St Peter's altar. St Peter himself is believed to be buried underneath. |
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| Can you believe all the people? I've heard 25,000 people tour the Basilica daily. |
After only a few minutes inside, our tour guide was pushing us on out the door to catch up with our group. We exited into St. Peter's Square, which was also stunning.
After finding a few souvenirs for me and my kiddos, we headed back to the bus to begin the next part of our stay in Rome.
Conveniently our bus brought us to the main taxi station in the City Center. A man helped us get a taxi, but with five of us and all of our luggage we were unable to all fit into one vehicle. So Mom, Grandma, and I loaded in the first one and left Michelle and Kristin there to wait for the next one. Rome is such an interesting city when driving through it, because you'll see ancient historic sites like the Coliseum mixed in with modern day shops, restaurants, and grocery stores. I sat in the front with the cab driver and we chit chatted along the way. It wasn't long before we arrived at our Air B&B apartment. I helped haul the luggage up onto the curb, leaving Mom to pay the fare. Once I got the luggage up, I looked over to Mom and realized that she and the driver were having quite an argument. I walked over there to see what was going on. The fare was 28 euro and Mom gave him 30, a 20 and a 10. While he was walking to the cab immediately before, Mom saw him pull out a 5 and he swapped it with the 10 she had given him, accusing her of underpaying. It was getting pretty heated, which was interesting considering how friendly he had been up until that point. What was also interesting, was that the moment I got over there, he changed his tune and "found" the 10 that she had given him. We parted ways and shortly thereafter, Michelle and Kristin arrived.
We met our host, Davide and his sister, who showed us their apartment. It was a spacious three bedroom 2 bathroom apartment with a kitchen and dining area. It was air conditioned (thank goodness!) and only a few blocks from the Vatican. It was about 3pm and we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, so after getting our luggage put away, we headed out to find something to eat. Most restaurants were closed at this time of day, so we ended up at a little deli sandwich shop. We grabbed several sandwiches, chips, and a few drinks and walked back across the street to eat them at our apartment. We finally sit down and open our sandwiches to discover that every last one of them were moldy. Like really moldy. It was so frustrating and after the cab driver's nastiness it just really made us feel vulnerable and unwelcome. Kristin took the sandwiches back to the shop and the man did give our money back, blaming a cooler malfunction. She was able to find some other sandwiches that at least tied us over until dinner.
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| Moldy lunch. Yum. |
We were all so exhausted from the heat that we took a few hours to just relax before heading out on our dinner adventure. It turns out that our host from Air B&B's family owned a restaurant right across the street, so around 7:30, we headed over there to see what we could find. We started looking through the menu to see what sounded good when the waiter came over. He said, "I'll bring something," grabbed our menus and went back to the kitchen.
When he returned, he brought us wine, bottles of water, three different kinds of pizza (white 4 cheese, margharita, and sausage and mushroom), linguini, and many appetizers to try. He brought an omelet dish, grilled eggplant, octopus ceviche, thinly sliced cooked carrots served cold, and bruschetta. All was delicious! The kicker of this whole thing was that when he brought us the bill, he only charged us for the pizzas and the water bottles. All of the apps and the wine, he provided for us at no charge. It made us feel so welcome and we were so touched. It was fun to get to sample so many different Roman dishes and our waiter gave us one of the best experiences we had in our entire stay in Rome.
After a good night's sleep, we awoke to yet another 100 degree day. In the chaos of our Vatican tour the day before, I had forgotten to get a souvenir for Brigid, so Mom, Grandma and I decided to walk the couple blocks back to St. Peter's Square to pick something out. Again, it was a hot walk, but the square itself seemed less crowded and it was nice to get a second look at some of the most important buildings of the Church.
When we returned to our apartment, we made a plan for the rest of the day. We decided that since we were in Rome, we would regret not seeing the Coliseum, so we took an Uber cab down to that area. We ended up needing two vehicles again, and each one cost us about 60 euro one way! We found a little restaurant for lunch and I figured that I needed to try some authentic Italian spaghetti. It was good, but nothing particularly special. It was definitely nothing like the gnocchi I had a few days ago in Sicily...
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| Eric said it looked like Chef Boyardee. |
After lunch we walked up the block to the Coliseum. It is so unbelievably huge. Just enormous. Because of the heat and everyone's fatigue levels, we opted not to take the tour so as to not have to do all of the steps. But, it sure was impressive.
We shopped around the area for a while and found an awesome Italian leather purse store that smelled so wonderfully like the butter soft leather. We snagged a few purses for gifts and for ourselves and headed back toward the taxi station to get a ride back to our apartment. While on our way, Michelle tripped on an uneven piece of sidewalk and fell. We didn't know it then, but she actually broke her foot. (We also didn't know that Grandma broke her toe earlier in the week, while tripping on a suitcase in our Stateroom!) We managed to find a cab that all of us would fit in and headed back to our apartment. Because Michelle (and Grandma) were hurting, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things to make supper at our apartment so they wouldn't have to walk any more than absolutely necessary.
The next morning it was time to head home! Kristin's flight home left very early, so she had to leave by taxi before the rest of us were even awake. Our host, Davide, had arranged for his cousin to transport us to the airport and so we began the 45 minute drive. Once we got out of the main part of the city, we saw a huge open field next to the highway, all filled with freshly baled round bales. It certainly reminded us of home.
The airport was a flurry of activity and lines, and because Grandma and Aunt Michelle were out of commission, I was charged with pushing the cart with the hundreds of pounds of luggage on it. We got our baggage checked without incident and were ready to board the plane. It was a direct flight to Minneapolis, so 10 1/2 hours. Fortunately, after a couple glasses of the complimentary wine, I was able to sleep for at least an hour or two. The rest of the flight went fast and before we knew it, we were to the MSP airport! It felt so good to be home, but surreal that our epic vacation was over! Mom and Grandma headed to the Eau Claire shuttle, Michelle was picked up by Michael, Kristin was en route to Dallas, and I headed through the airport to get on my 29 minute flight to Rhinelander.
As we flew into the Northwoods, I noticed how lush and green everything was and I noticed the many beautiful lakes and rivers and was breathless at the beauty around me. It's funny how after being in some of the most celebrated places in the world for beauty, the Northwoods still holds its own. We truly do live in a beautiful part of the world and I'm proud to call it home.
I'm so glad that I got this amazing opportunity to make these memories with these beautiful, strong, and important women in my life. This is trip we will always look back on fondly and be grateful that we got to share this time together.
