Rome Tourists

Miles from Home - 5612.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Vatican City, Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Square, St. Peter’s Basilica, Castle St. Angelo, first rainy day in Italy, Spanish Steps, Niccione / Chocolate / Cherry gelato
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - No Route Today.
People - Brad Frazier



This post is from June 1, 2009.

Visiting churches is a major part of seeing Europe for many people. I am interested in the architecture, but find much of the history very disturbing, so I don’t spend a lot of time touring churches. Although Brad and I feel the same about this, we both wanted to spend our second day in Rome seeing Vatican City and the related sites. Whether or not misdirected, the effort and accomplishment on display are as impressive as I imagined they might be.

It has been my goal throughout this trip to never be one of those people in a tour group who follows a guide holding up an umbrella. I accept the fact that I am a “tourist”, I just don’t want to scream it to the world by following someone with an umbrella. Motivated by the promise to bypass 2 hour-long lines, however, we were persuaded that taking a tour through the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica was a good idea.

Being a raining day, the guide wasn’t the only person holding up an umbrella, but I knew it was there and that I was following it. Our guide’s name was Mike-from-Ohio. Every time a new person would join our group; he would introduce himself as Mike-from-Ohio. In spite of the indignity of following an umbrella, the tour really did enhance the visit. Mike-from-Ohio knew the subject matter well and was fairly entertaining. The promise of by-passing the 2 lines was only partially true. I think we waited about an hour to get to the security screening area after Mike-from-Ohio estimated that it would take 5-7 minutes. We avoided a major line at the Colloseum by pre-purchasing a Roma Pass, but in general, waiting in line is part of the Rome experience.

After finishing the Vatican City visit, we walked around the city some more and ended up at the Spanish steps after dinner. The walking miles are starting to add up, and both Brad and I are starting to hear the dogs barking.