2022-07-22: Rome Day 2

It was another early morning this morning. We had tickets for a St. Peter’s Basilica tour that started at 8:00am this morning. We were up at 6:00am, got cleaned up, and had a quick breakfast in the apartment. We left the apartment at about 7:15 to find a cab. We went to the taxi stand by the Basilica a couple of blocks over again and hopped into a taxi.

We arrived in front of St. Peter’s Square at about 7:35. We had to walk a few blocks to get to the meeting place for our tour about a block outside the square. Our meeting time for the tour was 7:45am. We found the meeting place and got checked in. We were given earphones and a radio so we could hear our guide better. At 8:00am we headed towards the Basilica. We walked into St. Mark’s Square and made our way to the security checkpoint. We had to scan our bags and go through the metal detector. Our guide warned us that the guards are often grumpy.

Once through security, we walked along the side of the basilica as this tour included a climb to the top of the dome which we were doing first. There are 551 steps up to the dome or you can take an elevator part of the way and only walk up 320 steps. Our tour took the elevator option. There were several sections of staircases. Some circular staircases, some straight staircases, and some that followed the contour of the dome requiring you to lean in one direction while climbing. Part way up, you find yourself on the interior of the basilica dome where you get a good view of the people down below and the ceiling of the dome. Then you continue on to the top of the dome where you get an amazing panoramic view of Rome. Unfortunately, it was fairly hazy over the city so we weren’t able to see very far. You couldn’t see the Colosseum in the distance for example. We did get a great view of St. Peter’s Square, the Sistine Chapel, and the Papal gardens from above though.

After spending 15 minutes or so enjoying the view, we descended the steps and elevator back to ground level. We exited the elevator into the basilica itself. Our guide took us through the many alters and tombs in the basilica. Our guide was a good man. There was a mother feeding her baby while sitting on the floor beside one of the alters. He paused the tour to help her find a chair in a nearby chapel where they were preparing for a service so she wouldn’t have to sit on the floor. He was quite angry that the guards in the basilica saw her sitting on the floor and ignored her. He went on a little bit of a rant before apologizing to the group. There was no apology needed in our eyes. He was doing the right thing.

After exploring the main floor of the basilica, we took the stairs down to the crypt. There are tombs of the previous popes in the crypt. We weren’t allowed to take pictures there but we saw about a dozen tombs of previous popes before returning the entrance of the basilica. Our tour ended here but we were welcome to re-enter the basilica and explore on our own if desired. The kids had seen enough and we had an appointment to get a pre-cruise covid test so elected to not re-enter. After a quick visit to the souvenir shop, we made our way back across St. Peter’s Square.

The tour ran a little longer than we were expecting so we grabbed a taxi to FirstMed Clinic. Our original plan was to take the Metro but we just didn’t have enough time. We arrived at the clinic at our scheduled time and had to fill out the standard paperwork. We were supposed to bring our passports with us but forgot them at the apartment. Luckily, we had pictures of the passports saved on our phones and the pictures were acceptable to the staff. Once the paperwork was filled out, a nurse took us to a room for the tests. She gave all of us a quick nasal swab and then asked us to wait for about 5 minutes while they ran the tests. Once the 5 minutes passed, the nurse came back and informed us we were all negative. Whew! That relieved some tension. We got the results printed off, paid for the tests, and were on our way again. We hopped on the metro across the street and made our way back to the apartment.

We dropped off the test results to keep them safe and cooled ourselves down for about an hour at the apartment before venturing out to grab some lunch. We found another restaurant a couple of blocks away called Pizzeria Bufera which was mediocre. We wouldn’t go back to that one. Once lunch was finished, we returned to the metro and took it a couple of stops to Circus Maximus. We explored Circus Maximus and talked to the kids about chariot races for a few minutes before turning around and returning to the apartment via the metro once again. We had all had about enough of the heat and had made it to all of the attractions we wanted to show the kids so we relaxed in the apartment for the remainder of the afternoon. The last week has been in 35+ degree heat and we just needed a break from it.

There was a restaurant the host for our apartment had recommended to us when we checked in called Taverna Romana. She mentioned that it is always busy so you have to call to make a reservation if you want to eat there. Amanda wanted to give it a try so she called them up and was able to get us a reservation for 7:30pm. We relaxed in the apartment until it was time to leave for dinner. The restaurant was about a 10 minute walk away. Along the way we saw the Carabinieri blocking off some of the roads leading to the Colosseum. We’re not sure what was going on in that area.

The dinner was enjoyable. I wouldn’t say it was our favorite restaurant, but it was decent. Michael had meatballs in tomato sauce. Patrick had the spaghetti carbonara. Amanda and I ordered veal saltimbocca but they misheard her and brought a lamb chop instead we think. We didn’t realize until she had already started eating as my plate didn’t come out at the same time. Both dishes were enjoyed though. Amanda and I had a chocolate and peach cake for dessert. It wasn’t what we expected but it wasn’t bad.

After dinner we walked back to the apartment. Patrick hadn’t slept well the night before so he was grumpy and wanted to go to bed. Michael wanted some gelato for dessert but we didn’t find any gelato shops on the way back. Amanda took Patrick into the apartment while Darrell continued the search for gelato with Michael. They found some just down the block from the apartment. Once we were all back in the apartment, we repacked our suitcases and called it a night. It’s off to Civitavecchia and the cruise ship tomorrow!