With a super early call for our morning tour, we were up at 5 am on our second full day in Rome so we could make sure the dogs were all taken care of and ready for a long day on their own in the apartment. We’d had nowhere near enough sleep, but I imagine this is likely typical for anyone on a 4-day trip to Rome. Sometimes you’ve just gotta suck it up.

Short on time and even shorter on brain cells, we caught a taxi to our meeting point for the morning’s tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. We got to the cafe just as it was opening (perhaps a little earlier than they’d planned on opening — they were still warming up the espresso machines when we walked in and asked for cappuccinos at 6:30 am). Before too long, other tourists began to filter in and we were ready to meet our guide for the City Walks Pristine Sistine Early Entrance Small Group Vatican Tour. Again, another fantastic tour by City Experiences! Our guide Valeria came armed with a ton of knowledge and even provided handouts explaining some of the artworks we were about to see (most notably the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel). She also sprinkled lots of local color throughout her remarks, which made the tour especially fun and interesting. We were one of the first groups to arrive at the gates of the Vatican and the tour was scheduled to last four hours. Even with the before-opening start and long run time — and a guide pointing us to the most significant pieces — it wasn’t enough time. I’ll forever remember Valeria urging us to “Andiamo!”. 

Once again, our guide ended the tour while we were still within the complex (in this case, she left us inside St. Peter’s Basilica), so we were able to continue wandering around and viewing at our leisure. After another turn around the basilica, John and I immediately got in the line for the dome tickets. Unlike the line for the basilica — which was now all the way around the square (and the square is mammoth) — the line to ascend to the dome wasn’t all that long. There was a lift, but of course John and I tackled the stairs. More than 500 of them! Well worth it, though, to venture through the basilica’s back passages. And the view from the top? Amazing!! 

Just a couple of notes regarding the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, Basilica. The Sistine Chapel has some pretty silly rules, IMHO. You can not take pictures — which I just don’t understand because a non-flash photo is not going to ruin anything. Also, you can’t crouch down. I have no idea why. And I’m not sure if the guards were just having a bad day or what, but I saw them yell at a lot of people. Including once at our tour guide, who, while leading us down the hallway after leaving the chapel, turned around and walked backwards to point out the view from the far end of the hallway. Apparently looking at where you just came from is against the rules because they started yelling at her almost as soon as she turned around. They also yelled at me (can you believe it!) for taking a picture in the hallway (it was an immense hallway). We were out of the Sistine Chapel, so I don’t get it. Not only that, but some teenager had JUST taken a picture of his family on the steps only seconds before! My next note is just a suggestion, but if I could have a bit of a do-over, I would likely still book the Pristine Sistine tour, but I would also book skip-the-line tickets (not a tour) for the Vatican Museums for the following day. I could have easily spent another four hours just in the museums (and definitely hope to someday). 

We were starving when we finished the dome, so we decided to leave the Vatican, walking through St. Peter’s Square and then down the road until we hit the Tiber. We stopped at one of the million takeaway pizza storefronts for a square of mushroom, and munched as we walked our way down to the Jewish Quarter. We planned on doing the RS Jewish Ghetto walking tour, but first we needed more sustenance! Waiting in a line out the door, we bought a couple of the famous ricotta cherry pies at Pasticceria Boccione and took them down to the river to eat. Very nice little break before the audio tour. The walking tour through the Ghetto itself was pretty quick, but we learned a lot. And surprise — the walking tour finished up at a set of Roman ruins that we hadn’t known about!

We ended up walking along the ruins — which included a Roman theater constructed under the orders of Julius Caesar — toward the city center, where we found a taxi to take us home. You may notice that even after planning our accommodations around the metro line and buying a 72-hour metro pass, we took a lot of taxis. One of the reasons is that the metro is not as extensive as we’ve seen in other cities — I guess it’s hard to find underground routes unimpeded by ruins in a city that has built on top of itself for the last 3,000 years! The other was time: we had so much to see and so little time to see it that we tried to cut as much extraneous travel time as we could. 

Once back to the apartment and after walking the dogs, John took a quick nap while I mapped out some ideas for our next two days. For dinner that night, we decided to walk to a market and cook at home. Italian meals are pretty heavy and we needed something lighter, fresher, and with more veggies than pizza or pasta. We had two burners and limited cookware at the apartment, but we still managed to put together a very nice veggie scramble. We were wicked tired, so stayed in and made an early night of it. 

Today’s total step count: 21,892.

 

4(ish) Days in Rome: Additional Days Linked Below

Arrival Day | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Departure Day