Yoghurt, bread, coffee, apples, oranges, hot chocolate, bread, cheese, meat, honey, jam, butter, and maybe some more bread. And I'm pretty sure I forgot some things.
Simple, yet filling.
In any case, we left our trailer with new promise in mind (no rain clouds on the horizon, well fed, hot showers, etc.) and set out to prove that the third day was the charm, and today, things would not be one long unmitigated disaster.
Shockingly, we were right. We had broken the will of the world's most powerful city, and the relentless punishment Rome had tried to hard to inflict had finally faded.
We traipsed the half kilometer to the bus stop with ease, and spent a little under an hour in the public transit system getting to Ottaviano Metro Stop, and from there walked on to Piazza del Risorgimento. There we stopped and bought overpriced but very tasty sandwiches, pastries, and ice creams from the local vendors. We had some time to kill before our tour, and we knew that we wouldn't get much of a chance to eat before the tours were done.
While we were making our own snack stop, Papa Phil got this lovely photograph of some fellow indulgers.
Yes. Those are nuns.
As noon approached, we made our way down one more block and into the amazing Piazza del St. Pietro, the amazing ring of stone that marks the front side of the Holy City.
Conclave had begun just two or three days before, and so the square was filled with tourists, pilgrims, watchers, and media, and a heightened tension and sense of expectancy filled the air.
At the foot of the obelisk we met Angel Tours Rome, our guide service for the day. Present were the dignified and charmingly Irish Sean, and our own guide, the young, irrepressibly American Mike Barnett. Also there was Russ, the young Irish man who would do our later afternoon walking tour, but that story comes later.
Now, when we walked up I should note that I was in the back of the group, and missed the immediate introductions. As such, I should explain that my impression of the meeting was that Sean was to be our tour guide, and that Mike was a fellow single backpacker, who had been allowed to tag along on our tour as a paying guest. He was a sharp-faced crew-cut youth with jet-black hair and a quick smile. Dressed in baggy jeans and a hoody, he looked like he'd just stepped out of third period American History from any Midwestern US high school.
Thus I was a bit surprised when I caught Sean saying "Now, Mike will be leading you guys today, and I'll see you later this afternoon!"
'Eh? What's this? A high school student is leading our tour?
As it turns out, Mike is no high school student. He's an accomplished world traveler and ex-Infantry soldier, is married to an Italian art student and has probably forgotten more information about the Vatican than Dan Brown read when he assembled Angels and Demons.
He's a native of Ohio, and his clear midwestern accent and informal speaking style were the perfect mix of information and fun for a high school group. He packed more information about the Vatican Museum into my mind in four hours than I would have thought possible, and I would recommend him to anyone looking for a guide of the Holy City's public areas.
Now that introductions are over, here he is.
Mike
He gave us a fantastic tour of the Vatican Museum, informative and lots of fun, with plenty of interesting facts about Michelangelo, Raphael, the intrigue of the scared court, and the various popes thrown into the mix with a slew of useful stories about the artwork itself. He even gave us a thorough overview of the entire Sistine Chapel using the picture posters put out for public display, since Conclave (the process of electing a new Pope) was underway and there was no chance we'd get to see the inside on this trip.
After he had finished with the Vatican (and he went an hour and a half over schedule for us, which we loved), we headed over to a small local bar that he recommended and we had a couple drinks and light snacks and chatted about life for a while. Then we followed him back over to St. Peter's cathedral, where he conducted a free tour of the entire cathedral for us and anyone who wished to join in. It was good advertising for him and great for us. He told stories about the beautiful and sad Pieta, the sheer scope of the cathedral, and some of the more loved Popes that were on display (the Papal bodies are mummified after death and kept on a rotation through a couple of 'display cases' in St. Peter's).
After we finished at St. Peters, we headed across town again and met Sean and Russ in front of the Spanish Steps, near the heart of Rome. There we began a walking tour with Russ as our guide. Russ was a newer guide than Mike, and his voice did not carry as clearly. He was good, but he has far to go before he becomes comfortable enough with all of the material to cover about that area of the city (and there is a great deal of it!).
Still his accent was fun, and he had a bunch of interesting facts about the politics of the city and the artwork that runs throughout Rome. While with him we stopped at Trevi Fountain, and threw in coins.
The legend goes like this: Throw in one coin, and you'll return to Rome, throw in two coins, and you'll return to Rome and meet your lover, throw in three coins and you will return to Rome, meet your lover, and marry them.
I cheerfully dug out a single coin and threw it in. I'm sure I'll be back.
Trevi Fountain
After Trevi fountain, we continued on and saw several other interesting sights throughout the city, including the Pantheon, and had a wonderful time. There is a marble in the floor of the Pantheon that has since been mined to extinction, and now costs US$28,000 per square inch!
Now that's some expensive flooring.
On our tour we stopped and got gelati (mmmmh, gelati. . . ) and even found a poster, from which Oh-Oh! got her name.
After the tour ended in the Jewish Ghetto portion of the city, we got directions to the nearest and cheapest internet cafe (Euro 1.50 an hour. Not bad!) and headed there for some quick work. I had to purchase a couple of plane tickets, one to Dublin for later that week, and one out of Dublin and into somewhere in the U.K. After some deliberation, I chose to land in Dublin on Wednesday, the 20th, and fly out for Cardiff, Wales, on Tuesday, the 26th.
Tickets secured we headed back to Camping Not-So-Fabulous, almost missing the last bus in the process. Securely at home, we crashed relatively early that night. We had a big day ahead of us.
Pompei was up next!
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