Day Two in Rome was dedicated to Vatican City and a little quaint neighborhood called Trastevere.
Vatican City
Since the Vatican is in it’s own city, country even, we had to purchase separate tickets for the museum. Our Roma passes could not be used for this museum. So we bought the tickets online the morning of. I strongly suggest you do this, there is a few euro charge for the online purchase but it’s worth it! Once we got there, tickets in hand, we saw the line literally wrapping around the city wall! It was crazy, and it didn’t look like it was moving. We walked right up to the entrance passing hundreds of people unhappy to be waiting in line, showed them the tickets we printed off at the hotel, then we walked right in! Saved us hours of precious time:-) You can buy your tickets on this website Vatican Tickets
Here are some pictures of the museum
Sistine Chapel
We went through room after room of beautiful art…then finally reached the Sistine Chapel! It was beautiful and awe inspiring! We found a seat along one of the walls and once again used our free podcast of Rick Steve’s explaining the history and details of this Michaelangelo masterpiece! I personally loved sitting there admiring this room with my husband…it was the highlight of the museum for me:-).
St. Peter’s Basilica
After we left the museum we visited St. Peter’s Basilica. The entrance is free of charge but there is still a line to wait in to enter…I think mainly because of the security you go through before you enter. The line went pretty quickly and we met a few couples to talk to that made the time go by even faster:-).
The above photo was taken by us while in line outside St. Peter’s Basilica. I thought it was a really cool shot because of the cloud shape above it! We thought it looked like an angel or a mermaid…what do you think? The following photos are from inside.
Above is a pic of Michaelangelo’s Pieta sculpture
A few of the above pictures are of Bernini’s alter. I learned that it was made of copper from part of the Pantheon. It was massive and very beautiful. Under the alter lies Peter’s tomb. The below photo is all I could see of Peter’s tomb because of the crowd of people there.
Here is a photo of me by a very large doorway.
More pics inside St. Peter’s Basilica
The last few pictures above made me wonder what the lady in the sculpture was looking for? Maybe she wondered what was under the gown? The one of her foot was to let you see the detail…I loved her sandals!
The Neighborhood Of Trastevere!
After we left Vatican City, we walked along the beautiful Tiber River. It was perfect weather and sunny at the time. My husband used google maps on his phone to get walking directions to our next stop…the beautiful neighborhood of Trastevere! I absolutely loved it there! Below are pics of the Tiber River and the Santa Maria church of Trastevere…one of the oldest churches in Rome.
We ate, drank, listened to local musicians, laughed, and enjoyed watching Italian people do what they do. Our back drop while we were at our cafe was something out of a painting…the sun shining over the church, the sound of the fountain in a distance, combined by two lovely Italian musicians, an artist panting with an audience watching as it unfolded into full form, even a young girl in a striped shirt and leggings blowing giant bubbles for the children’s delight!
It was a perfect Italian setting to make beautiful and long lasting memories I will cherish forever:-)
I will be posting a video to let you get a better live visual of this charming neighborhood and others on a future blogpost dedicated just to short videos of my favorite Italian moments.
We finished with a cappuccino and gelato…it was my favorite spot in Rome!
As we walked back to our hotel we found this charming courtyard…a perfect ending to a wonderful second day in Rome. Until next time, Ciao! TADA!
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