Vatican | Blissfulbritt

Day two in Rome was dedicated to visiting the Vatican Museums. Otherwise known as “the human cattle herd halls.” Before going into the Vatican Museums, I wasn’t fully aware what they were. After going into the Vatican Museums, I’m still not fully aware what they are.

All I know, is that the Vatican Museums are endless, and most people (myself included) visit just to see the Sistine Chapel.

I’ll admit after finally making it into the Sistine Chapel, it was not what I expected. The famous painting of Adam touching fingers with God took up only a small portion of the ceiling, but all this time I thought it was the majority of the ceiling. I sneakily took the above photo despite the “no photos” rule. I’m glad I took the photo, because I felt so rushed and crammed into the building I could hardly appreciate the ceiling while inside.

The walk to get to the chapel was packed wall to wall in each room we passed through. It was intense, it was hot, and it was a lot of things I didn’t care much to see. I’m not a museum person, so this was a bit of a struggle. Some of the art work was amazing and I don’t regret going into the museum, I just don’t think it would have been something I would have prioritized had I not been with my mom.

Alas, even she agreed it was not a necessary visit.

The line to get into the museums is long…really long…so I purchased our tickets online with a time slot months before we went. I can’t recommend this enough for anyone else interested in visiting Rome/Vatican Museums. If you don’t buy your tickets in advance prepare to wait a few hours to get in.

We passed by St. Peter’s Basilica to get to the museum where I saw the most disturbing sight.

A scruffy looking man who I’d presume might be homeless, was bent over a flock of pigeons eating what looked like a saltine cracker. I was curious what he was doing, so I looked his way and watched as he let crumbs fall from his mouth onto the ground. I thought to myself, “how nice, he is feeding the birds.” Just as this thought passed through my brain, the man reached out with the quickness of a cheetah and GRABBED one of the pigeons.

Pigeon in hand the man walked off as if nothing happened. I can only imagine what he was going to do with the pigeon, and I tried to tell myself he was just hungry and needed to eat, but the process of what I saw freaked me out. I also don’t think pigeons are the cleanest of animals, but I suppose hunger has no limits and I now just feel sad for him.

Rome has an intense homeless problem, and it was sad to see. I suppose this happens with bigger cities, but since living in Europe I haven’t really seen many homeless people until arriving in Rome. This was another thing about Rome that surprised me and shattered the “Romantic Rome” vision I had in my head. After dinner the previous night I had leftovers, and while walking the streets a man asked for my food. Without hesitation I handed my box to him.

I digress.

After the Vatican Museums we made our way to lunch at a local cafe, where no one inside spoke English except us. Our adorable waiter spoke great English, but apologized to us for not speaking more fluently in English. Are you joking!? HE apologized to ME for not speaking MY language in HIS country. It was love at first word. I ate a delicious salad before walking my mom back to our Air B & B.

By this point, my mom had seen all she wanted to see, so I took off solo for a bit to explore more of the city. I headed towards the Colosseum and Roman Forum, where I had purchased tickets in advance as well. This is another place buying tickets ahead of time is highly recommended. Stay tuned for my next post about my visit to these two amazing historical locations.

Q: What would you have thought/felt after seeing the man and the pigeon? I literally cannot look at pigeons the same way…

Roma, ohhhh Roma. Just the thought of you makes me think of romance, history, religion, and Lizzie McGuire. My mom (and sister) came to visit me in Europe last month, and when I asked her (my mom) where she wanted to go (other than Germany) she immediately said: “Rome.”

My mom is a devout catholic, and Rome is to a catholic like Disneyland is to a small child.

Rome wasn’t high on my list of “must see’s,” but I was happy to oblige her desires, so I did all the dirty work to plan for our trip to Rome. Everything went smoothly…until it didn’t. My mom’s flight was canceled into Germany and she had to spend a night in Dublin, putting us behind half a day. Then when I picked up our rental car, I was given a boat instead of a compact.

Did I mention I was driving to Rome? Where the streets are narrow and the drivers are intense?

I drove my boat and myself to the Munich airport to pick up my mom the morning we were to drive to Rome (which is about 11 hours from Munich) and I waited an hour and a half to change the car. It was worth every minute’s wait, and I ended up getting an Audi A3 Limo style.

I fell deeply in love with that car. Much better for an 11 hour drive.

Driving to Rome was…interesting. The drive was surprisingly smoother than I anticipated, and my anxiety about the Autostrade tolls was unnecessary. The tolls were simple, you just get onto the Autostrade – get a ticket – and pay when you exit. I only paid once getting off in Rome. I felt like a local in no time.

Arriving in Rome was another story. I hoped because we were arriving late (around 11pm) the roads would be less…populated. I was wrong. The streets at night are just as crazy as the streets in the day, and Italians are just as aggressive as they say when it comes to driving. Finding our Air B & B was an adventure.

It took an hour to find, and I had to call the host at midnight.

We couldn’t find parking despite the Air B & B listing stating they had parking (which is why I booked it) so I parked on the street a bit away from the place, which was annoying. After all the hoops were jumped through, the car was parked, and we were inside our apartment, we went to bed to prepare for our first full day in Rome. We’d made it, we’d arrived, it was time to breathe.

We arrived on a Saturday, which meant we were able to attend Sunday mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.

The weather was perfect, and arriving for mass at 9am allowed us to beat some of the crowds. On Sunday’s the Vatican Museums are closed, so the entire Vatican City is less chaotic. Did you know that the Vatican City is considered its own separate country? Although I had already been to Italy before this trip, I can still count this as a new country visited thanks to this fun fact.

Mass was beautiful, as was the inside of the Basilica. My mom claimed this was the highlight of the trip for her (other than seeing me of course.) That alone made all the hoops jumped through worth it. Helping facilitate this visit for my mom was very rewarding.

Mass is held multiple days a week at the Basilica, but I was happy we made it for Sunday mass.

After mass we ventured off to get some lunch. We quickly learned that tourist traps are everywhere, and we ate at a restaurant that charged us $60 for a kitten sized portion of pasta, and a medium pizza. Prices aside the food tasted like cardboard and we didn’t make the same mistake twice.

While sitting there eating, a man walked by playing music. After he finished he stuck his hat out expecting money from us, to which I declined. I am all for paying street artists if I feel inclined, but this is another example of how touristy this city is…locals expect and receive money from people who don’t know any better.

After we ate, we took a tour of the city on the Hop on Hop off (HOHO) bus.

Rome is a large city, and a lot of the attractions are spaced far apart. It’s not a driving friendly city, so in order to get the full taste of everything it’s advisable to be in good walking shape. My poor mom hurt her knee pretty badly before she came, making her trip a bit difficult to enjoy at times. Rome is also not nearly as romantic as I originally assumed.

Rome is dirty, it smells, there are tons of tourists, tourist traps, pushy street vendors, and despite it being September it was HOT.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we went, but I don’t feel the need to go back anytime soon. Aside from all that, there were plenty of beautiful buildings and statues to gawk at. The HOHO bus took us towards a handful of attractions, but there were a few we skipped out on like the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. I guess I do need to go back after all.

After a full first day, we decided to try again with dining out. We found a slightly touristy place, which was still moderately expensive, but the food was AMAZING. Worth it. I let my hair down and ordered pesto pasta, which set the tone for the rest of the trip.

After dinner we walked back to our Air B & B in Vatican City to prepare for the following days adventure. Stay tuned for our visit to the Vatican Museums, and the traumatizing sight I saw with a homeless man and a pigeon.

Q: Do you like big cities?