Today, we had a guided tour of the Vatican scheduled in the afternoon and we had the morning to ourselves. After some debate, we decided to visit the Roman aqueducts in the southern outskirts of Rome and one or two other smaller places before joining our group in the Vatican.
Since there was no rush to join a group tour or anything, we dawdled a bit and set off to the aqueducts around 9am on the Metro line A. We got off at Giulio Agricola and walked the 1 mile to the park in which the aqueducts were located. The park is massive and hardly sees any tourist traffic. The park itself was quite crowded but everybody there was either a resident of a nearby building or a jogger or a pet owner. We were the only weirdos lugging a camera, so we felt a bit out of place there. We hurriedly took a few pictures and headed out of there.
From Giulio Agricola, we headed back towards the centre of the city but got off at San Giovanni which was the nearest station to our next stop, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. This is considered the most important church for Catholic Christians and is the church for the Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope). So, we decided to mosey along there and take a few pictures of the outside and inside.
But, we changed plans and decided to skip the visit to the inside of the church. Instead, we took a few pictures from the outside and walked back towards the station, taking some pictures of a part of the wall that surrounds Rome. Next, we stopped at a gelato place for the kids to grab...what else, a gelato. The temperatures were again in the mid to high 30s (celsius), so we were looking for the tiniest bits of shade we could find to rest for a while. We decided that we had some time before the tour of the Vatican started, so we would get off at the station closest to Castel Sant'Angelo and then walk from there to the Vatican. So, we got off at Lepanto and started walking towards C S'A. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a sandwich shop that I don't recall the name of. By the time we finished, we realized we would be cutting it too fine if we went to C S'A, so we decided to head to the meeting point for the start of the Vatican tour. That's when we realized that the meeting point was not near the Vatican at all. Ironically, the meeting point was right next to our hotel near Termini. We had only about 25 min to go but we decided to take a chance by going all the way back. We rushed back to the Lepanto metro station and caught a train back to Termini. From Termini, we quickly hurried back towards our hotel and looked for the Green Line Tours office. By the time we found it and boarded the bus, it was almost full and ready to leave. The guide (Max) talked about the sights on the way and we reached the Vatican area around 2:50pm. The agenda had us visit the Vatican museum first followed by the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Cathedral.
We entered the Vatican Museum first and were taken quickly through the most important exhibits. I confess that we are completely ignorant about the finer aspects of art / sculptures / etc but we were still impressed by many of the things we saw in the museum. Next up, we went into the Sistine Chapel. Of course, this is the place where Michelangelo painted the ceiling with images of the Creation of Adam and the Last Judgement. The size and clarity of the paintings were visually stunning. The Sistine Chapel was, as expected, extremely crowded and hence noisy. There was a person at one end who was trying to stress the need for silence but nobody was listening because they were so busy talking! After admiring the ceiling and walls for about 5-10 minutes, we trooped out and headed to the Cathedral. This is another magnificent structure with exquisite sculptures and paintings all over (apart from the altar and other usual Christian ceremonial parts). Honestly, the size and scale at which Christian monuments are built are only rivaled by the ones found in Islam, I think. I don't think I've ever seen monuments of this size dedicated to the Hindu religion. Anyway, we spent quite a long time in the Cathedral and headed out to see the Swiss guards who guard the entrance to the Papal residence. After that, Max told us that we could browse around the gift/souvenir store while we awaited the bus to take us back to the hotel.
After we got on to the bus, we suddenly thought that we felt good enough to do some more sightseeing in the area, especially the Castel Sant'Angelo that we missed earlier in the day. So, we got off as soon as the bus crossed the Tiber over to the other side. Ashwin also google'd a Mexican restaurant nearby so we sat down at a Gelato shop to use their Wifi and find directions to it. The name of the place is Nero Caffe and it's near the corner of Via Paola and Lungotevere degli Altoviti. On a side note, I figured out that the prefix "lungo" means "along". So, in Rome, a road that runs along the river Tiber is called "Lungotevere...." whereas a road that runs along the river Arno in Florence (or Pisa) is called "Lungarno....". Anyway, back to Nero Caffe. I would highly recommend this place. The available flavors as well as the taste is a shining example of Italian gelato.
Next, armed with directions to the Mexican restaurant, we set out to find it. But, before we got very far, we realized that not having GPS or internet connectivity would make it very difficult to find our way there. We gave up on the idea and decided to head back to the hotel. En route, we found a Subway where we packed some sandwiches, bought some souvenirs and caught a bus (route #46) back to the hotel. Near our hotel and across from Termini, there is a small ristorante where we also had some soup and pasta.
That was the end of day #3 in Rome and nearly the end of our stay there.
Since there was no rush to join a group tour or anything, we dawdled a bit and set off to the aqueducts around 9am on the Metro line A. We got off at Giulio Agricola and walked the 1 mile to the park in which the aqueducts were located. The park is massive and hardly sees any tourist traffic. The park itself was quite crowded but everybody there was either a resident of a nearby building or a jogger or a pet owner. We were the only weirdos lugging a camera, so we felt a bit out of place there. We hurriedly took a few pictures and headed out of there.
From Giulio Agricola, we headed back towards the centre of the city but got off at San Giovanni which was the nearest station to our next stop, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. This is considered the most important church for Catholic Christians and is the church for the Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope). So, we decided to mosey along there and take a few pictures of the outside and inside.
We entered the Vatican Museum first and were taken quickly through the most important exhibits. I confess that we are completely ignorant about the finer aspects of art / sculptures / etc but we were still impressed by many of the things we saw in the museum. Next up, we went into the Sistine Chapel. Of course, this is the place where Michelangelo painted the ceiling with images of the Creation of Adam and the Last Judgement. The size and clarity of the paintings were visually stunning. The Sistine Chapel was, as expected, extremely crowded and hence noisy. There was a person at one end who was trying to stress the need for silence but nobody was listening because they were so busy talking! After admiring the ceiling and walls for about 5-10 minutes, we trooped out and headed to the Cathedral. This is another magnificent structure with exquisite sculptures and paintings all over (apart from the altar and other usual Christian ceremonial parts). Honestly, the size and scale at which Christian monuments are built are only rivaled by the ones found in Islam, I think. I don't think I've ever seen monuments of this size dedicated to the Hindu religion. Anyway, we spent quite a long time in the Cathedral and headed out to see the Swiss guards who guard the entrance to the Papal residence. After that, Max told us that we could browse around the gift/souvenir store while we awaited the bus to take us back to the hotel.
After we got on to the bus, we suddenly thought that we felt good enough to do some more sightseeing in the area, especially the Castel Sant'Angelo that we missed earlier in the day. So, we got off as soon as the bus crossed the Tiber over to the other side. Ashwin also google'd a Mexican restaurant nearby so we sat down at a Gelato shop to use their Wifi and find directions to it. The name of the place is Nero Caffe and it's near the corner of Via Paola and Lungotevere degli Altoviti. On a side note, I figured out that the prefix "lungo" means "along". So, in Rome, a road that runs along the river Tiber is called "Lungotevere...." whereas a road that runs along the river Arno in Florence (or Pisa) is called "Lungarno....". Anyway, back to Nero Caffe. I would highly recommend this place. The available flavors as well as the taste is a shining example of Italian gelato.
Next, armed with directions to the Mexican restaurant, we set out to find it. But, before we got very far, we realized that not having GPS or internet connectivity would make it very difficult to find our way there. We gave up on the idea and decided to head back to the hotel. En route, we found a Subway where we packed some sandwiches, bought some souvenirs and caught a bus (route #46) back to the hotel. Near our hotel and across from Termini, there is a small ristorante where we also had some soup and pasta.
That was the end of day #3 in Rome and nearly the end of our stay there.
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