St. Peter's Basilica - Rome, Italy

Ali hijacked a post under my name, so I'm going to post one under hers since she is busy trying to finish a book before we leave San Sebastian tomorrow morning.

We went to the Vatican museum the second night we were in Rome, but because we had night tickets, we didn't get there early enough to see St. Peter's. We made a trip back one of the last days before we left Rome.

When we got to St. Peter's square, there was a line snaking around. As most people know, I don't like lines. They usually lead to me whining or randomly walking around and leaving whoever is with me to hold my spot until I find it convenient to return. That hadn't been a problem thus far in Italy since we really hadn't run into any lines because of when we were there. The one place that had a big line was St. Mark's in Venice. I had read in both of our guidebooks that if you checked a bag around the corner, you would get to bypass the line because the bag check was only valid for an hour and the line can reach up to four hours. So we emptied one of our small backpacks, filled it up with random objects, and diligently went to check our bag and picked up the ticket as proof. We walked to the front of the line at the main entrance of the church prepared to show my ticket and encountered...nobody at all. Nobody cared if I had checked a bag or not. We just walked right in. Meanwhile, there were hundreds of people waiting in a two hour line to enter. Basically, lines in Italy are for people that like lines.



So as we looked at the line to enter St. Peter's, we decided we could easily sneak in and not be noticed (like plenty of other people we witnessed were able to do). Nevertheless, I felt like we would be the one group that was called out on our line cutting and I figured that if there was one place we should actually wait it should be the holiest of holy sights. So we went for a walk and came back to encounter the same line. We decided to tough it up and wait. It was only about 15 minutes total which wasn't too bad. And the nice gentleman in front of us in line was a Catholic priest from Ireland living in Detroit who was waiting in line to get his tickets for the weekly papal audience. It seemed appropriate that we waited.

So after a wait and a metal detector, we went into St. Peter's. It was big...really big. Everything is larger than life. From the ground you can't even get the full perspective. According to our Rick Steve's audioguide, even the tiny angels adorning columns were bigger than the average person. We tried to soak it all in, but it's tough to do. There was also a service going on which let us get an idea of what goes on in an average day, even if it seemed to mostly be filled with tourists who had arranged for a service.



After walking through the basilica, we went around the corner to climb the cupola before it closed. We paid E2 less in order to climb the relatively small number of stairs at the beginning of the climb rather than taking the elevator (although I don't think anybody would have checked our ticket). As seems to be a running theme, the skies began to open up as we started our ascent.

As you can tell by the blog, we've climbed a whole lot of things during our trip, but I think we would both say this was one of the more difficult ascents. It was aided by a break partway up in which we were able to look over the inside of the basilica and enjoy a little breeze - the stairs were extremely hot and stuffy. It was very, very high, and it gave a little bit of perspective to the enormity of the sights that can be seen from below.



Climbing the rest of the way requires a bit of a tilt.


But the top was totally worth it. Incredible views of all of Rome and the square down below.


We were a little bit tired by the time we made it.


As you can tell, we were partially grateful for the rain, but it hindered the view and the ability to stay for very long. It was quite funny to watch the rain go from drizzle to pouring and watch St. Peter's Square empty (and the large line completely disappear) in roughly 5 seconds.



After we descended, we came across a Swiss Guard outpost. Because this one didn't seem to have any strategic importance, I'm pretty sure it was just there as a place for tourists to take pictures. Ali had to wait in line before we could snap this one.



They were pretty good sports. I'm not sure I would be after all the admissions requirements. (I'm pretty sure I only hit 2 of the 8 conceding the marriage thing and with the whole "good moral character" thing up in the air - don't tell the CA Bar about the moral character part).

The rain certainly makes certain parts of these trips interesting (and slightly less busy), but I think we both wish they weather would ease up on us for the rest of the trip. Alas, not so. But we got some good not rainy days that are coming in future posts and we will stop whining about the rain shortly.

Orvieto, Italy - September 15 & 16 (part two)

As we mentioned, we loved the little B&B that we found. Unfortunately, it was down the hill from the city and required a walk up a dirt path to the road that led to the parking lot with the elevator that led to the city. This wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the impending storm that was threatening all day our second day there.

The road was already made muddy by some rain the night before forcing me to roll up my pants and look strangely like an old lady in the picture below.


Nevertheless, we had sightseeing to do and would not be put off by a little rain. We bought the Orvieto Pass and knocked out nearly everything to see in Orvieto in one day. First, we did the Orvieto Underground tour featuring the pigeons and the Well, both of which Ali discussed earlier.

Then we went to the city's extremely large and flashy Duomo (only the best for when the Pope comes to visit) which can apparently be seen from miles away. It also has a side chapel with an impressive end of days fresco said to be the inspiration for the Sistine Chapel (no pictures allowed).



We also went to two nearby museums: an Etruscan history museum where Ali enjoyed the little statue below and an archaeology museum of which we were probably the only visitors all day.



Next, in furtherance of our mission to climb every single thing in Europe, we stomped to the top of the city's bell tower. From up here, we could really see the storm coming on the horizon.





Unfortunately for Ali, despite being at the top of a bell tower, there was one thing we didn't see coming (it's a little long, but wait for the end).



It started drizzling as we left the bell tower and headed for our final sight, a private cave with a well inside. Out of the hundreds of caves under the city, you can only go into 2 of them, most of the others still connect to the kitchens of houses and are still in use as wine cellars, work rooms, and dove cotes. This one was cool to see as you could see how the well had been utilized throughout the centuries. The cave was open to the public because the house had been converted into a bar.

As we were finishing up, we could hear it start to pour outside. We decided to grab a drink in the adjoining bar and wait for the rain to die down. After a while, there was a slight break in the action we decided we would just go for it and hope for the best. Unfortunately, we got about 10 feet outside before the skies opened up and sideways rain engulfed us. No matter what I did with the tiny umbrella I couldn't find a way to keep us dry. We sprinted towards the elevator and found a brief respite from the rain, but the damage had been done.



Nothing to see here.

We did all of the above sights for only 18 euro each, including parking or a funicular ride that we had no need for. It was a great deal and very manageable within one day.

After we got back and rested, the rain stopped. We decided to head back up the hill for dinner. As we waited for a table, the rain began again and in the dark night we once again avoided injury walking down a wet muddy hill in the rain.

Siena, Italy - September 14 - 15

We left Florence by bus headed for Siena. Just as we got to the Florence bus station, it started pouring. It rained most of the way to Siena, then stopped right as we got there. It was kind of an icky day. We got there right around lunchtime, and decided to eat a nice big meal at La Taverna de San Giuseppe up at the top of the hill. The food was great - definitely a creative mix of modern and traditional. Unfortunately, while we were eating, it started to rain again.

Everybody we know loved Siena. I thought it was nice, except for all the rain. Part of the fun is supposed to be the Campo in the middle of the city, the view from the tower, and walking around enjoying all the nice little architectural touches of the city. We tried doing all these things. Just one night anywhere is always a gamble, and I felt we sort of struck out this time around.

It was a pretty hairy afternoon, so there weren't too many people in the Campo, and the clock tower was closed for climbing due to the weather. We came back the next morning before we left and it was a little nicer, but it was still pretty wet and abandoned.


It stopped raining right around sunset for a few nice pictures while we were walking up the hill to the cathedral.


Where there is rain, there are also sometimes rainbows. They were difficult to snap, but we saw a few around town in between squalls. If you look between the two thin columns in the lower opening you can see it peeking through.


Oh the joys of Rainbows in the Rain. No. Not those rainbows. The ones I've been trudging around Europe in for the past month and a half.


The next morning was still overcast and the forecast was not looking great for our stay in Orvieto either. When we arrived in Siena, we noticed there were kids everywhere. Making out. Everywhere. At the train station on our way out, the hotel front desk told us to watch out for all the kids, because school would be getting out at noon. Either we disregarded this or didn't get it, but when it came, the train we planned to take was two small, grafitti covered cars into which piled about 200 middle school kids before we could even think about getting up. Realizing we were never going to get a seat and that we probably could not tolerate being trapped on a train with 200 13 year olds, we opted to wait for the next train about half an hour later, had lots of empty seats, was about 9 cars long and had no grafitti. Those four sad looking adults you see in the picture actually got on with the kids. They must have really be in a hurry to get somewhere. We found out later that it was the 2nd day of school in Italy, and all the kids were really excited. To make out with each other.