Day 9 - Full day in Rome

As usual on this tour, we were up bright and early to head into the city. A coach bus brought us to the subway station, and Sarah escorted the group on the trains to get us to the Colosseum for our first tour. I don't know how on earth we would have been able to do that with a larger group - I've never been on a train that was as jam packed as they were that morning. We were all squished together and could barely get everyone onto the train. We had roughly half the amount of people in our group that there would normally be on a Contiki tour - there is no way another 25 people could have ridden the train with us.

We arrived at the Colosseum for our 8:30am tour, but unfortunately there was some issue with our group ticket and they would not let us in on time. I think we stood around for a good 45 minutes, which was very frustrating after rushing to get there so early and joining a tour to "beat the lines". Thankfully, after a lot of pushing from Sarah and our walking tour guide, the people at the Colosseum finally let us in.

Waiting to get into the Colosseum

Everyone knows the Colosseum - it's probably one of the most recognizable structures in the world. It was built around 80 AD, and though it is in ruins today it is still holding together better than you'd think after all that time! The Colosseum was a huge ampitheatre that could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators for a number of different entertainment events, including gladiator contests. Our tour guide walked us through and told us stories about the history of the Colosseum.

This is really not a great picture of me, I was not feeling well at all that day!

After we finished exploring the Colosseum, our tour guide walked us over to the Roman Forum, which was right next door. The Roman Forum is basically a bunch of ruins of the old city center where a number of different events would happen (speeches, elections, other fairly typical city happenings). Our tour guide walked us around a little and pointed out some of the main structures.

Truthfully, though I enjoyed seeing the Colosseum and it's always neat to walk around ruins and imagine what was once a thriving city - I was a little disappointed in the tour. The guide did a wonderful job, so it wasn't her fault - I just think I would have gotten more out of wandering on my own (or with my friends) and seeing things at our own pace. The information provided was interesting, but I have a hard time focusing on listening to stories while looking at things. I do much better reading or exploring at my own pace. So - this tour was probably not the best choice for my style.

After we wrapped up, we only had a little time to eat something before taking the train to Vatican City. We picked up sandwiches in a little shop by the train station.

Danielle was so cute with  sandwich in one hand and a doughnut in the other, I had to take a picture of her

Sarah helped us take the train to Vatican City. The Vatican tour also started late - which was frustrating since we only had 1 day in Rome and both tours started more than a half an hour after they were supposed to, so we wasted a lot of time. I also was not feeling well at all - I had a cold and the Sudafed that I had brought on the trip wasn't touching it. I spent most of the day sniffling and trying not to sneeze/blow my nose too much. Between that and being exhausted, I was really struggling. So being made to wait on tour guides and listening to hours of Roman history was really hard. 

I do absolutely hate to complain because I know how amazing it was that I was in Rome and seeing all these wonderful sites. I am so lucky and I will say that I had fun despite not feeling well. I just also made the important discovery that I do not like walking tours where the main focus is talking about history. It's not that I don't find it interesting, I just have a lot of trouble paying attention and absorbing what's being said. Being sick did not help with that, but I have a feeling it would have been an issue even if I were healthy. Knowing that now, I will plan future travel accordingly.

Vatican City is actually not just a city - it's the smallest country in the world, surrounded by walls and found in the middle of Rome. The Vatican is obviously very significant to Catholicism, but I'm not Catholic so I found it interesting more or less because of the history and art housed within the city. Truthfully most of what I knew about Vatican City before visiting was learned from reading "Angels and Demons", and I really wish I had not given away my copy of that book so I could read it again now! My memory for detail is not so good so I can't remember most of the book.

The entrance to Vatican City - it is surrounded by a wall

We took a walking tour with another little Italian woman. She was very passionate about all of the art in the Sistine Chapel, and we spent a great deal of time talking about it and looking at pictures of it before really getting started on the tour. You aren't allowed to speak while in the Sistine Chapel, so she couldn't tell us about anything while we were actually in there.

The tour got moving and we went outside:

Then we spent some time walking through the Vatican Museums, which houses a ton of artwork in the form of paintings, sculptures, etc. The museum itself is a gorgeous building with lots of architectural detail - I again I was struck with how much more I was interested in the building than what was in it! It's not surprising Vatican City is full of beauty - Catholic churches tend to be the prettiest, and the Vatican was like the biggest Catholic church imaginable.

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Inside the Vatican Museum - you can see how crowded the place was, too.

The artwork on the ceilings of the museum

View of Rome from inside the Vatican Museum

You can't tell from my photo, but this painting of Jesus was painted such that his eyes appear to be following you as you walk past. If it wasn't Jesus, it would be creepy.

The tour guide did a nice job of explaining the history and significance of many of the sculptures and paintings throughout the museum. The place was extremely crowded, and it was difficult to stay with the guide because she was such a little woman and so easily swallowed up in the crowd. Our walking tour had an audio device that you put around your neck and use headphones to listen to, so thankfully you could hear the tour even if you couldn't see the guide.

From the museum we moved into the Sistine Chapel. You are not supposed to talk in there, because it's a place of worship. This was almost hilarious, because about every minute you'd hear whispers turn into voices and voices turn into a general crowd noise and then someone working there would say "SHHHHH!!!!! NO TALKING!!!!". And then everyone would go silent for about 30 seconds and it would start over again. Truthfully, I have a low tolerance for being disrespectful so I found it annoying that people kept ignoring the rules. But I also thought it seemed like a dumb rule in this day and age because obviously people don't listen and it was probably more disruptive to keep telling us to be quiet than it would have been to just let people talk. 

I guess you weren't allowed to take pictures, either, because I don't have any. The Sistine Chapel was painted by Michaelangelo and many of the images are very recognizable. These aren't my pictures, but I've copied a couple from a Google image search to show what I'm talking about.

Inside the Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel ceiling

After leaving the chapel, the tour was complete. We finished up by walking out to St. Peter's Square, where we could stay and explore on our own or leave and do something else.

By this point, I felt like the walking dead. My cold medicine was not working at all (and I had probably overdosed since I kept taking more hoping it would help). My feet and legs were killing me from being on tours all day. Really, everyone was exhausted regardless of whether they were sick or not - taking two historical tours through crowded places is exhausting, and by the time we finished up in Vatican City I think it had been 9 hours since we left the campsite (with very little sitting at any point in the day). We had a free hour or so before we were supposed to meet Sarah so she could get us back to the campsite. 

As much as I would have loved to see something else, I really just wanted to sit down. Danielle and I went into a gift shop before leaving the Vatican so she could buy a rosary for her grandmother. Then we walked out back into Rome and stopped at just a couple of little shops while walking to the train. I'm glad she was with me, because I think I would have had a hard time figuring out how to get to the train with my exhausted brain - I remember just kind of wandering after her. We took the train to the stop where we were supposed to meet Sarah, and figured we'd walk around a bit there once we knew we were in the right place.

Well, the train station was kind of in the middle of nowhere. We walked a little bit and found ourselves in a neighborhood that looked sketchy. We were hoping for some gelato or somewhere to hang out, but there was really nothing. So we used the creepiest bathroom I've ever been in in my life (I swear it seemed like the kind of place you'd hang out to use drugs) and then sat on the platform and waited for Sarah. Not too exciting, but I was past the point of caring.

Final thoughts on Rome:

Rome was one of the places I absolutely did not want to miss on this tour - it was a major driver for booking this particular itinerary. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I think the problem was mostly lack of time and making the wrong choices on how to spend my only full day there. While I am glad I went to the Colosseum/Roman Forum and Vatican City - you really can't go to Rome and skip those - I do wish I had gone on my own/with friends as opposed to taking a tour. The tours were just too detailed and slow moving for my taste, and I think I would have enjoyed myself more if I could have explored at my own pace.

I was also pretty bummed out that we had no free time at all that day. We could have stayed in the city later, but the train system is complicated and it sounded likely that we'd end up on the wrong train and get stuck traveling 2 hours out of the way (no joke!). It didn't seem worth the risk, especially since I was feeling pretty awful by that time anyway. 

I think Rome is a must-see city and if given the chance, I would like to go back and spend more time there. I think I saw all the major "sights" but did not get much of a taste of Roman culture or really a very good feel for what the present day city is all about.

I "Heart"  Roma night

When we got back to the campsite, I couldn't get to bed for a nap before dinner quickly enough. That night was a party - I think they called it a whiteboard party - where everyone was supposed to wear an "I Heart Roma" white shirt and use markers to write on each others' shirts. I really wanted to go and not miss out on the fun, but I was feeling so awful that I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I took a nap and thankfully my roommate, Aynar, had some amazing cold medicine (from Turkey) that she shared with me. 

By the time dinner rolled around, I was feeling much better though still not great. Most of the others on our tour had purchased alcohol in Rome and got started on the party ASAP - dinner was pretty hilarious since a couple of people were already in the bag by that point. I was not sure I could even handle doing anything, so I skipped that part had napped instead!

The party actually started later - around 10 or 11 - and by then I had caught a second wind enough to join. It's funny, because I would have never, ever gone out to a bar in Iowa if I was feeling so sick that day - but YOLO. There would be no other chance to hang out with these particular people after this trip, and I wasn't going to miss out on the fun because of sickness.

The party was fun. The shirt writing was a little silly (I can't even read most of what people wrote on mine) but I have always appreciated a good theme party. There was a lot of dancing and I had a really good time.

Danielle and I, drinking Corona - surprisingly popular at the Contiki campsites

Danielle, me, Phil, and Kris

Me, Jeff, Rustin, and Alyssa

Phil's face in this one makes me laugh every time I see it

Me, Jhoey, Kris, Neraj, Ruston, Daryl, Alyssa, and Jeff

Me, Alyssa, Ruston, Jeff, Sarah, and Hercules

By the end of the night, I had completely lost my voice from shouting and singing and being sick. Despite that and despite another late night, I was glad I forced myself to push through and be a part of the fun.