Rome: Day 2
Today we overslept and missed our small group Vatican walking tour. That’s really all I’m going to say about that. This trip has so far been filled with several mishaps that I’ve neglected to outline: being scammed at a restaurant, not realizing that the subway closes at 10 pm, not having enough marmalade croissants. I objectively like Rome for the things it has to offer: art, Vespas, incredible architecture, pasta, and a wealth of history. It’s probably the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. But I haven’t necessarily loved my subjective experience of Rome. The streets are insane, everything is incredibly overcrowded, and you don’t really know who you can trust.
Despite the oversleeping, we were able to score a spot on the 9 am Vatican walking tour. By this time, the Vatican was already packed beyond packed with the first batch of it’s 27,000 visitors today. If it were not for Linda, our tour guide, I likely would have been swept up in this endless crowd of people and would have had to live my life in the Vatican state forever as a nun. That doesn’t actually sound that unappealing because nuns here seem like they have a pretty cushy life, comparatively. I’ve seen them riding the subway, wearing Birkenstocks, and just having a grand old time, all things that I love doing.
The Vatican museum is overwhelming. There are over 4,000 statues, but we just hit the highlights. (Note: I had a really difficult time photographing things today because they were all so beautiful and not very well lit, and I don’t really know how to fully operate my camera.)
After the Vatican, our tour guide led us into the Sistine Chapel, where we were culled like sheep by guards into the middle of a huge crowd of people and were allowed to stare at the ceiling silently for 10 minutes. Pictures are not allowed. Nor is showing your knees and shoulders. We then headed over to Saint Peter’s Basilica, and after a brief interlude of being lost from our tour group for a half hour, were shown around the Basilica by Linda. The Basilica is by far the most overwhelming display of Catholic, Baroque opulence in the world, probably the most beautiful manmade thing I’ve ever seen.
After the Vatican, it turns out that all of the public transportation workers were on strike, so we had to take a cab through massive amounts of traffic to a gluten free restaurant. Here, I again got drunk off lunchtime wine, proving that I will never be able to live in a country where day drinking is mainstream. We went to a park where I proceeded to uncontrollably start to fall asleep on a park bench, wishing I had read in the guidebook whether or not sleeping in public is culturally acceptable. I needed a cappuccino and fast.
After my cappuccino, we went to the Borghese exhibit, the highlights of which are a collection of Bernini sculptures and Caravaggio paintings, but the gallery spans from ancient to Renaissance. By this point I was beginning to realize that I don’t think I saw a single thing made by a woman all day, except maybe my croissant. And the first female statues I saw were in the Borghese collection. I’m not going to go all Guerilla Girls on this but it’s interesting to think about.
We concluded the evening with some Spanish steps, a couple rounds of gelato, and the Italian opera. We sat Anna Karenina-style in little booths all around the gallery of the opera, allowing for some spying opportunities and pretty great photo ops. We got the cheap seats, so we were sitting in the booth behind people who got the slightly less cheap seats, a very kind elderly couple from Cyprus. For some reason, my mom had a higher chair equipped to handle the back-row, but I did not. The woman from Cyprus asked the same question that was on my mind as well: “Why is there no high chair for the girl?”
I managed to score a high chair from the hall, allowing me to see about ¼ of the stage from my inconvenient spot. I ended up just standing for the third act. The opera, Tosca, was great and included everything you’d ever want – multiple death scenes, near-affairs, hidden prisoners, arias, etc. When we left the opera to walk back to our apartment at 11 pm, everyone was just casually out getting dinner like it was 7 pm in America. I guess I can see how this Rome thing could be fun.