8/6 -- Rome

August 28, 2022

This morning we had an early morning tour of the Vatican. We missed our chance to reserve a time to tour it, so ended up paying extra for a private, guided tour. It was so interesting to learn the history of the buildings and the art inside, and of the various Popes. The Sistine Chapel is incredible and St. Peter’s Basilica was most impressive to me because all but one small part of it has mosaics (rather than painting). The size and complexity of them was incredible.

One of the favorite things I learned is that the people depicted in the Sistine Chapel and in many of the statues were nude (because ancient Greeks and Romans were fine with nudity). But then in the 1500s the Pope at the time decided that nudity was shameful and that the genitalia in the works of art should not be visible, so a non-Michaelangelo painter covered the genitalia on the Sistine Chapel, and someone else made fig leaves to strategically place on the statues. I cracked myself up thinking of that artist at cocktail parties when they were asked what they did for work. “I make stone fig leaves to cover the statue genitalia at the Vatican museum. How about you?”

After our 4 hour Vatican tour, we grabbed a quick lunch and then took an Uber across town to the Colosseum. We had also scheduled a guided tour of this, as well as the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. This was a bigger tour and the guide spoke so quickly it was hard to understand what she was saying and we felt like we missed a lot, and it was super hot so she kept us in the shade rather than walking around much, so the tour part left something to be desired. Still, being in the Colosseum was really freaking cool. And I had thought it was just for gladiator fights, but learned there were actually several shows per day: in the morning there were animals from Northern Africa (our tour guide suggested it was a parade of animals, but I read that there were also hunts); at midday there were executions of prisoners/people convicted of crimes; in the afternoon/evening there were gladiator fights.

We next walked up Palatine Hill, the highest of 7 hills in Rome, and looked down on the Roman Forum. This was the site of important governmental buildings in Ancient Rome, that were somewhat torn down in the Middle Ages, the materials used to build other structures including St. Peter’s Basillica at the Vatican. The site was started to be excavated in the 1800s. Pompei’s ruins were much better preserved, but it was so neat to see what was once the center of civilization (All roads lead to Rome and all). The official tour concluded on the hill but we went down to the Forum and walked around a bit. Russell was excited to see the building where Julius Caesar was killed (and he said that Rome has been his favorite city because of the Colosseum).

It was a long day of tours and the kids were tired as we had gotten in late and then up early, but they really did great. There were some moments of almost-meltdowns, and some too-tired wild behavior, but all in all it was good.

After the Forum, we went back to the apartment and cooled off a bit, then to dinner in the Trastevere neighborhood (where we had fried gnocchi which was super good), then walked to see the Trevi Fountain. The fountain itself was really neat (and tradition states that if you throw a coin in using your right hand over your left shoulder, you will return to Rome; if you throw two coins in you will fall in love in Italy, and if you throw three in you will get married to an Italian), but what I thought was even neater was the fact that we would just be walking through this bustling city and turn a corner and run into an ancient structure or ruins in the process of being excavated.

Something I have appreciated everywhere we go is how efficient with space Italians seem to be. Every space in buildings and restaurants and rooms seems to be used to the best of its ability, and small apartments don’t feel super small and way more people can fit in restaurants than you’d think possible.