Pope's General Audience

Wednesday, our last day in Rome is also the weekly general audience for the Pope.  When in Rome and all, we decided to attend.  We had reserved tickets ahead of time that we were supposed to pick up on Tuesday afternoon.  We did not.

The Internets told us that if you don't have tickets you can request them from the Swiss Guards at the Bronze gate the morning of the audience.  So we woke up and headed to the metro around 6:30 am to try and track down new tickets and then wait in line for the Audience.  The gates to St. Peters square open at 7:30 am for the 10:00 event and you want to get there early for good seats.  (and Seats period).

As per Italian culture, upon our arrival everything was a confusing mess.  We couldn't get to the Bronze Gate due to barricades.  There was already a huge line of people waiting to get into the square.  After noticing several people in this line holding tickets, Wifey knew it was the wrong line.  We wondered around, and eventually got in line anyway.  Once the line started to move, it proceeded to be unorganized Italian craziness.  instead of encouraging people to respectfully queue, an Italian police officer forced the folks further back in the line to rotate forward and up next to the earlier line members.

As we reached the front of the line, we allowed the police to inspect our purse and camera bags and then proceeded to line up at the metal detectors.  No sign of ticket-takers yet.  And 'just-like-that' we were in St. Peters square.  From here our objective was complicated

1. Get as close as possible to the stage 
2. Get a chair 
3. Get as close to the exit as possible since we have a train to catch in mid afternoon 
4. Get a spot close to the pathways where the Pope make's his rounds.  

Yes, I realize some of these objectives were in conflict with each other.  Hubby saved the day, finding us seats in the front section, second to back row, near the corner closest to the Metro station!  We had aisle seats allowing us to easily stand up and line the fence when the Pope rode by.  

After a couple hours of sitting around, people watching and waiting,

We got our chance to see the Pope up close!  Video credit goes to Hubby!!!

After driving around and shaking hands/waving for a while, Pope Francis ascended the stage and the audience began.  The entire program is presented in English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese, and Arabic.  This makes it very long.  Pope Francis himself presented in Italian and Spanish.  

After the program completed, we knew it was time to leave before the crowds blocked our path to the Metro, and by extension our luggage and train. 

It was only as we exited that Wifey really realized how good of seats we had for the day!  

Night Tour - Bone Chapel; Catacombs! YAY

In an effort to avoid crowds and the heat of the day, we tried to schedule our tours either early morning or late at night.  Tonight's tour is with CityWonders and ranks 2nd of 3 that we took in Rome.  We joined with CityWonders to see the Capuchin Crypt (or Bone Chapel) and the Catacombs of Pricilla.  Since both of the sites we visited were religious and 'sacred'; photos weren't allowed.  

Catacombs of Pricilla

Bone Chapel

Our tour guides for these sites were good guides, but likely were not Christians.  They did present the religious sites with respect; however a tour that pre-supposes the belief system to which I belong would be better.  Years ago, I visited Israel with religious guides and it is just a completely different experience given basic Biblical understanding and interest.

The following photos are from google to give you an idea of what we were viewing:

Appian Way and Lunch

From our AirBNB you can see a line of old ruins.  It looks like an old elevated highway. In fact it is an ancient aqueduct.  Our scheduled tour today doesn't begin until 5:00 pm so we set off on foot to reach these ruins!  We made it and also enjoyed walking around a park which is part of the old Appian Way; or the road into town.  

Exiting the park, we found one of many water fountains placed and maintained around the city by the Roman government.  Rome has provided clean drinking water to it's citizens for centuries, which is credited as one of the reasons for its success since clean drinking water is important for citizen health. 

Walking home from visiting the aqueduct and park, we came across an interesting restaurant nestled down a hill from the road.  How can folks who have a dog this cute serve bad food?

Also, how dedicated are the delivery people who traverse a flight of stairs with a hand truck!  

Wifey had seafood pastas - and was surprised at its presentation.  

The dish itself was great and served as leftovers the next day too! 

 A cappuccino and gnocchi for Hubby! 

And we'll leave you with a selfie shot outside the restaurant!  

Mamertine Prison

Heading home from our whirlwind afternoon, we noticed we were near Mamertine Prison, which was on tomorrow morning's to-do list and stopped by to check on tickets.  Unexpectedly, the Museum and adjacent prison were open for another hour and we were able to visit!  

The visit begins with a museum explaining the history of the site and its architectural make-up.  The dioramas were pretty interesting to help show visitors the full picture.  

A close up of the prison cell itself in diorama form.  

After touring the museum and reading up on some history, we proceeded down into the prison cell.  Tradition/History says this is where both Peter and Paul were held while they were imprisoned in Rome.  Luckily stairs now allow access in place of the ceiling whole which would have been the only means of ingress and egress during Biblical days.  

It was very dark and quite damp down in the cell.  It was also very cool.  This was nice for us since we'd worked up a bit of a sweat power-walking to arrive by closing time for our question.  Nevermind that we had 'closing time' wrong. Thanks, Google.  However, I imagine being imprisoned during the winter would have been quite miserable.  

Yeah, did we mention pretty dark?   

Spanish Steps - Trevi Fountain - Pantheon - And Coffee

We didn't have any plans for the day after visiting the Vatican so made some quick stops on our Metro ride home.  

Right next door to our metro exit were the Spanish Steps.  Wifey's favorite guide book suggests that the steps are a good place to sit a spell and watch the city go by.  We're pretty sure this isn't allowed anymore as Italian Police were nearby and folks were only taking relatively quick pictures and moving along.  

Since we were pretty tired and a hint grumpy caffeine was needed.  Italians don't really drink their coffee cold; so we went to McDonald's hoping for some good-home iced coffee.  After quite an adventure to order we succeeded in receiving one iced cappuccino and one experiment.  The cup on the left below is Hubby's iced cappuccino.  The tiny shot glass sized thing is Wifey's experiment. The pictures all looked like this item was soft-serve interspersed with espresso.  

It was actually chocolate ganache, followed by a shot of espresso, followed by a small dollop of whipped, sweetened cream-like substance.  It was pretty awful unmixed and we ended up adding these ingredients to the cappuccino cup. 

We saw Trevi Fountain.  Again, the size doesn't come across in any pictures we'd seen before online.  Sadly, the area is absolutely overrun with tourists.  

Last, we stopped by the Pantheon.  This wasn't actually something which Wifey found interesting in planning but ended up loving.  Like so many Roman sites, you turn a corner on some random cobblestone street and all of a sudden you seen an open square and a mammoth building or statue in front of you that will take your breath away.  Absolutely stunning.