VISITING THE SMALLEST NATION

Day 13, Saturday, July 5, 2008

Today was another humid and energy-consuming tour. We went to the Vatican, the world’s smallest nation. Because we had group reservation, we did not have to fall in line for tickets. We made sure that we dressed in accordance with the dress code.

There, I satisfied my curiosity at the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Apartments, and St. Peter’s Basilica. I soaked in the amazing and perplexing history as depicted in the paintings, sculpture, and other assets of the Catholic Church (including sarcophagi), and the wealth of information about the history of the Church, one of which was the inscription of the names of popes from the St. Peter down to the last one. I admired with awe Michelangelo's talent as epitomized in the Sistine Chapel and the Pieta. Being inside the Sistine gave me goose bumps thinking that I was in the very chapel where the election of a new pope traditionally takes place. I considered this chapel as holy and the noise made by tourists who disregarded the rule to keep quiet was very upsetting.

Our group then left the chapel through an exit that directly led to St. Peter’s Basilica, thus saving us time by not going back to the entrance. Here at St. Peter's Basilica, the holiness, sanctity, and reverence of the place vanished due to the pack of humanity. People were taking pictures and talking aloud while Eucharistic service was going on.

Rome’s foot traffic was terrible partly because of the number of tourists (approximately twenty million a year) in addition to the nearly three million of people populating it. We were in Rome in July at the height of summer and at the height of tour season.

Ron and I stopped at a shop to look for rosaries. We bought two. They cost E20 each because they were made of olive wood. I'm sure the rosaries were overly priced. When I went into another room in the shop, I thought that Ron was behind me. I started talking about looking for some more rosaries but when I turned around, he was nowhere. I looked for him in another room. I did not find him there. I went outside and there he was, walking down the road oblivious that I was not behind him.

           Ragen previously told us how to get back to our hotel easily by going to the obelisk from the basilica and turning to the left to find the two arches. That street would be Via Ottaviano. Finding Via Ottaviano became a problem because I lost my map and my direction notes. I also kept thinking of via Cavour instead of via Ottaviano. I had some “senior moments.” The people we asked directions from could not understand why we wanted to walk to via Cavour because via Cavour was way far from where we were. The more we were upset about the whole thing, the more we could not think clearly, until someone said it had to be via Ottaviano. We finally found our way back to via di Santa Prassede where our hotel was.

           We had the rest of the day to either take a rest or do some more exploring. We chose to rest. It was a tiring day. I was told there are more than five hundred churches in Rome alone and I'm sure they are all very beautiful but I could only take in so much beauty.

I was dog-tired that night and looked forward to our “vacation from our vacation.” We were going to Cinque Terre.