It was a glorious and fun day. We started with a nice breakfast at the cafe where we had lunch the previous day, and then we boarded a city bus for the Vatican. It was a spectacular day, sunny but not too hot.
We strolled through St. Peter’s Square, and as luck would have it, we were going up a back staircase and saw a lot of commotion. We hung out for a bit, sensing something important, and then a small car whizzed up- AND OUT CAME THE POPE!
Since we are now extra holy, we headed into the church (or St. Dad’s, as I started referring to it) where we awestruck by the sheer size and majesty of the space. There were pilgrims in processing through the church from somewhere in Africa, and it was powerful to see their faith in action. We had tickets to the museum where we saw some interesting statues.
Plus, we saw a painting depicting the death of Sapphira – reminded us the Acts play that my atrium did last year (Go COS).
The Sistine Chapel was amazing, although it was packed and the security was VERY serious about their job (of course, I’m not sure why people try to take pictures after endless prompts that due to the holiness of the space they are forbidden – just buy a postcard in the gift shop, it will be better quality and it made from a slightly aggressive experience. People, we can follow directions every once and a while!). We were famished at this point, and so we headed to the gardens to eat our delicious sandwiches (I love prosciutto), We had many laughs at the pigeons and a gargantuan, snaggletoothed seagull vying for our lunch as well. Ole Snaggletooth was quite a character!
We got some great advice from a docent on how to get to the entrance to the cuppola- it is the dome of St. Peter’s that you can climb). By returning through the museum, we could get to a secret entrance to the cuppola, and it gave us another opportunity to go through the Sistine Chapel (and after we read all about it, we were able to understand more of the scenes depicted).
Climbing the cuppola was amazing (500+ steps!), but well worth the effort. At times, the floor and ceiling are both tilted and at other it is so narrow, you felt you could barely make it through (plus, there were some very steep parts). However, when you get to the top and can see all of Rome, it is amazing.
We spent a bit more time in the church before leaving for the bus back to the Campo di Fiori area. The kids found a street artist making these amazing spray paint pictures (which they all bought), and then we had an amazing dinner full of laughter.
We wandered the street afterwards, finding the spot where Julius Caesar was killed (and reenacting it)
and the famous ruins which also serve as a cat sanctuary. We got some dessert in Piazza Navona and headed home exhausted but happy. Plus, my kids are really cute.
