Rome: Saturday, Nov. 15: Sant'Angelo and The Vatican Museum

This morning we woke up at the reasonable hour of 7 and received a phone call from Juan and Mandy (it was 9 pm for them in San Diego).  We had panettone and caffe latte for breakfast and then hopped on the #40 bus for the Vatican.  Although "hopped on" isn't quite the right term since we walked up and down trying to find the right bus stop and trying to decide whether to take the #64 (which had more stops but was packed) or the #40 Express.  We finally walked a bit further and caught the 40 express, eventually getting a place to sit down and arriving fairly quickly at the Vatican.

Castel Sant'Angelo

First we visited Castel Sant'Angelo which was originally the Emperor Hadrian's tomb but was then repurposed as a stronghold/fortress for the popes in the 15th-16th centuries, when the Holy Roman Emperors were sacking Rome.  We did a lot of hiking up and down stairs but got some beautiful views of the Tiber and the Rome cityscape.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take the Pope's escape route back to the Vatican, the one that Tom Hanks used in the movie Angels and Demons.  Instead we had to walk around in circles finding our way out.

View from Castel Sant'Angelo

Group of Happy Hikers

Lunch at Salento Salato

Fortunately we were able to regain our strength with a stop at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  The names of most restaurants are not very prominent but they are mainly advertised as a trattoria, pizzeria, gelateria, bar, ristorante.  However I do remember that this restaurant was named after the "heel" region of the boot of Italy: Salento Salato.  The "tout" outside, who drew us in, had a Romanian mother, an Italian father and a French grandmother, and the waitress was from Lima, Peru.  The restaurant was very very small but we could chose 3 items from the daily menu plus water, soda or beer.  Guess what we drank?  They had orecchiete with eggplant and olives, with brocolli rabe (and anchovies), or with tuna and olives.  They also had roast veal, eggplant lasagna, and salad.  It was surprisingly good even if they served it on paper plates.

Naturally we were almost falling asleep after we ate and we had to find our way to the Vatican Museum by 2 pm.  So round and round we went for half an hour and finally ended up at the entrance, which is way on the other side of Vatican City.  Oh my gosh.  The Vatican Museum is immense and one has to walk up and down stairs for no apparent reason.  Today we have easily walked an equivalent of the 521 stairs to the top of St. Peter's dome.

Spiral Staircase at Vatican Museum

We tried to see the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel first, and so did everyone else.  We have come to the conclusion that if you really want to see the paintings it is easier to look at them in a book or online.  The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is so high that it is hard to see, even with Penny's binoculars.  The restored paintings are much brighter but there are still a lot of very dark paintings.  They also have a collection of contemporary art but those were very dark as well, both in color and subject matter.

Sunset at St. Peter's

We had planned to visit St. Peter's Basilica after the Vatican but it was already turning dark and the line to get into the Basilica (mass was at 5 pm) was much longer than we were willing to wait.  So we are going to save St. Peter's for another day (crossing our fingers that we'll return).

We caught the #64 bus home without too much trouble and we all got seats since it was at the beginning of the route.  The buses have been very full with standing room only for sardines so we felt blessed.  We were also blessed in that it only started raining as we reached the apartment.  That means no gelato for us tonight.  We will have to content ourselves with another bottle of novello.