Kind's Retirement Travels: July 2024

Tuesday, we got up at 6 and Francesco from Just Chilling Suites drove us to our meeting point for our Skip-the-Line Vatican tour with Viator. We had a small group of 10 with guide Lucia. Knees and shoulders must be covered for this tour. Scarf vendors came around to accommodate those who did not prepare. Our entry time was 8:30 a.m. We toured part of the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. No pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel. It was full of people looking up! We felt rushed through all of this. We were done at 11:00. All of the tour was very crowded except the Vatican Garden. 25,000 people a day go through. It was a sunny, beautiful day, high 80F.

Vatican Garden

Outside in St. Peter's Square

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

Statue of St. Peter

Dome in St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's altar in Basilica

Tombs of popes under Vatican

Mosaic of Garden of Gethsemene

Swiss Guards at Vatican

Swiss Guard at Vatican

St. Peter's Square

Mosaic floor inside Vatican

Inside Vatican-baths of Titus-81 AD

Hercules Statue inside Vatican

Vatican passage to Sistine Chapel

Ancient ruins in Rome

We had lunch before walking to the Pantheon which had very long lines, so we skipped it and went back to our rooms by taxi. After a brief rest we walked to the train station to buy tickets to Florence on Thursday. We then walked to dinner where we had pasta, meat antipasti, beer and wine.

We walked to Trevi Fountain at about 8:00 (almost dark) where we threw a coin over our shoulders to ensure we'd return to Rome. It was quite crowded but beautiful. We then walked to the Spanish steps which were also very crowded- we did not walk up. After stopping for gelato, we walked back to our rooms by 10 p.m., very sore and tired! Over 25,000 steps.

Trevi Fountain

Spanish steps at night-no sitting allowed

Column of Immaculate Conception

Trajan's Column

Roman Forum

Statue of Trajan

Piazza Navona in Rome

Piazza Navona

Back street of Rome

Mask shop in Rome

Narrow streets of Rome

Sunday May 12, we left home at 7:45 a.m. to drive to Minneapolis. Our flight left at 4:00 p.m. and stopped at Atlanta. Then at 7:30 p.m. we left for Rome. It was hard to sleep on the plane, even though we had a nice meal with wine and watched movies. We arrived at Rome FCO airport around 11:30 a.m. local time on Monday May 13 (4:30 a.m. CST). We met our Canadian friends Marilyn and Larry at the airport and met Bruno from Just Chilling Suites who drove us to the lodging, pointing out various sites on the way.

Room with private bathroom (picture from hotel site)

We took a very old elevator (2 person max) to our third floor spacious rooms. We checked in, changed our clothes, and then walked around the neighborhood (near the Colosseum). We had a beer outside the Santa Maria de Maggiore cathedral which was close by and did go inside to see it.