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to the sistine chapel and beyond!
for the first time in at least a year, i slept a solid 7 hours without stirring once and, when i did wake up, felt like i needed another 7 hours of sleep. sadly, i didn't get that next 7 hours.
mai and jessie were both already up and ready to go, so while i dragged my weary body to the shower, they went across the hall to the free breakfast.the shower had plenty of hot water and pressure, but was slightly lacking in space, being about 2 inches wider than my shoulders. it felt like i was showering in a stand-up coffin or a water torture chamber.
i finished my torture, er..., shower and got dressed and the girls walked over to the breakfast spot with me. all the fun danishes were gone but some very good, very lightly sugar glazed croissants were left, so i dunked one into a cappuccino and had my breakfast. we gathered out stuff and headed out to the vatican.
the vatican, being it's own independent country completely contained within italy, is only about 80 acres (i think that's what the guide said) was easily twice as far away from us as anything we had walked so far, so we got directions to the metro station (their subway system) and after a small confusion over where to buy tickets and which train (the a train or the b train) to get on, a brisk and packed tighter than sardines train ride had us walking up the the giant wall that surrounds the vatican. we walk into the courtyard of saint peter's basilica, which is adjacent to the vatican, and marvel at all the columns and statues and fountains and most of all at the huge line waiting to get in.
a moment later, a man approaches and asks if we want a tour that doesn't have to wait in line and gets immediate access to the sistine chapel and the basilica. we first say no, but then after a brief consultation with mai, i ask him how much the tour is. he tells us the price and explains how the tour works and says it starts in about 10 minutes and that we can listen to the entire tour introduction before paying anything so that we can decide if we like it or not. we say we'll do it and follow him away from the courtyard we are in. as we start walking, i tell mai we have no way of knowing if this guy is legit or not, and that if he starts to lead us somewhere shady looking (and i don't mean cool and out of the sun), that we turn and walk away. instead, he takes us to a group of about 20 other people all listening to a guide and the whole thing feels legitimate. we get some headsets and listen to the tour introduction which his all about the vatican city, the bailica of st. peter, the history of the area and other stuff like that. the guide then explains how the tour will work and we start walking towards the pay or leave area, which was a local bar (the "american bar" actually) where we have the chance to use a restroom (it's a 2.5 hour tour), buy some food/water and then actually pay for the tour.
that being done, we headed off to the vatican museum to begin the tour. at this point, i'm going to curtail my so-far currently verbose ramblings, not because the vatican does rate it, but because it's such a visual experience that i just really can't properly describe it with using superlatives like "amazing" and "beautiful" over and over and over again. both the building itself and everything that is packed in it, has to be the best collection of art i've ever seen. paintings, frescoes, mosaics, tapestries, sculptures... there's almost not a bare inch of space. my two friends patty and erin both said "take the tour" when talking about the vatican, and i'll say the same thing to anyone who ever gets to rome. both for being able to completely skip any lines and for the quality and quantity of what you see, the tour was worth every euro we paid for. oh, and yes, the sistine chapel is at least 78 times more awe inspiring in person than any picture or video you'll ever see of it.
sadly, due to the tour being almost 3 hours of almost non-stop walking, we had to opt out of a few things we otherwise would have done while being there. some where deep in the vatican are three plexiglass coffins with three popes on display. they have decomposed very little if at all. that would have been cool to see. we also skipped the huge climb up to the top of the dome of st. peter's basilica. if you check out the pic i took of people at the top of the dome and see how small they are, it is as the guide described it "a commanding view of rome unlike any other in the city". sadly, our feet and really empty stomachs forced us to skip it.
so, a few souvenirs later, we start our walk back in the general direction of our hotel with a few planned sight seeing stops along the way. first up, a castle that sits along the river that cuts rome in half. after that a really cool civic building completely done up with columns, arches and statues. next, and this was really the whole point of this walk and why we didn't go straight back to the metro, we saw the piazza navona fountain, a big touristy shopping/eating area with a really cool huge fountain. as packed as the vatican was of art, this courtyard surrounding the fountain was packed with artists and vendors and restaurants. as hungry as we were, however, we learned that, the more touristy the area, you end up paying double the cost on food but getting only half the flavor. so although we were dying to stop and eat, we couldn't tolerate the idea of a sub-par meal.
map in hand, we locate the nearest metro stop and keep an eye out for an open restaurant that looks like a good local place. a few blocks away, after realizing that at 4pm, most non-tourist restaurants are closed (waiting to reopen around 7:30pm for dinner) we took the first place we found that was open. it ended up being a very expensive restaurant that thankfully had a few "all included" dinners for a very reasonable price. we got 1 of each of the 3 being advertised and were very happy to finally be off our feet.
sadly, this meal didn't compete dish for dish with the one last night, but we still enjoyed it for the most part. highlights include the octopus salad (best octopus i've ever had and i'm being totally serious about that), the pancetta fettuccine with a matriciana white sauce (me and mai really liked this but jessie did not) and the pasta carbonara (which was jessie's favorite and that we enjoyed as well). the meals came with a dessert so he brought us out a tiramisu that was far better than the regular one we had last night, but not quite as good as the strawberry one. we finished it up with some cappuccinos that were the best we had had yet. stuffed, rested and happy, we headed towards the metro and a rest at the hotel.
of course, we didn't end up just right at the hotel. we were walking through a very touristy, or at least, a very retail heavy district. lots of specialty clothing stores and cafes all around. one cafe in particular caught jessie's eye. it had these really tempting looking tarts filled with something that looked like mousse. we got a two-tone one, white and a light mocha color we figured was coffee flavor, and had it packed to go.
continuing on, just a few blocks away from the metro, we were walking down a street and found half a dozen really cool looking local flavored restaurants. sadly, we were stuffed and tired and didn't get to go to any of them. we did however make a note of where they were and put them on the consideration list for dinner later that night (did i mention that is was 5 pm already and our late lunch was really early dinner?).
at the end of this street we also found another famous italian landmark, the steps of spagna. so many people were out and about just sitting and talking on them you almost couldn't even see the steps themselves. regardless, we can say that we were there.
the metro station was right at the steps so we finally made it back to the room and the girls again crash into nappy time while i, the ever dutiful scribe, put pen to paper to transcribe the days events.
oh, actually, our hotel was located right next to the santa maria maggiore basillica. jessie had been wanting to check it out since getting there so we finally went it and looked around. as soon as we opened the doors, however, we saw they were just finishing mass so we had our brief look and then got out.
where was i? oh right. as 9pm rolled around, the girls finally stirred and we were off for dinner. we again asked the hotel desk for a recommendation, and he mentioned a place just down the street (the contini) from the hotel and also mentioned the place from last night. i told him we were there the night before and that it was excellent. so we walked about 10 yards down to the contini, an american music pizzeria, to see what fate had in store for us.
mysteriously, fate seemed to not be smiling on us this time. the food wasn't horrible, and it was a locals place, but it was like italian food through an american lens. the lamb was tiny, fatty, over-cooked and skewered. the pizza was thin and burnt. the wine was sour. oddly, or maybe expectantly for an american-style place, the steak was the best dish. but all in all, we were very disappointed. we didn't clear any plate and signaled to the waiter that we were done.
for the first time, we left dinner being unsatisfied. so of course, we instantly decided to head back to the cool restaurants we saw near the steps of spagna earlier. again, however, we were thwarted by fate. it was 10:30pm and, after asking a helpful policeman, we found out the metro stopped running at 11pm. we could have taken a cab back, but there was also a strong chance the restaurants would have been closed by the time we got there. so having to accept we would never get to try them, we walked instead to the "mafia" restaurant we passed earlier in the day. we called it that because jessie saw 6 older men all at one big table and said it looked like those kind of guys (mafia guys) all eating together. so we headed that way.
it was just around the corner and the doors were still open and people were eating there so we walked in and got a table. mai ordered chianti and the waitress promptly spilled it on the table (she set it down right where the 2 small tables met, which was uneven, and it started to spill before she could catch it. as she tried to take the bottle away, we told her it was fine and we kept it and we could tell she was embarrassed. we did our best to put her at ease though and just continued on is if nothing happened.
we weren't super hungry, but we did want more food, so we opted for the two house special dishes: rigatoni "condor" style and pizza "condor" style. did i mention the restaurant was called "le condor"? mai also saw a dish she last had 10 years ago in france, melon wrapped with prosciutto, and ordered that as well.
i think fate saw we were trying, but it refused to completely relent, so this was better than the contini but not in the same class as the chicken restaurant from last night. (i think i completely failed to mention in my last letter that last nights restaurant was done up like an old farm house, served bread in small wicker baskets and had a chicken in the logo.) the pizza was better than the contini and the rigatoni was not bad either, but both the pizza and the rigatoni were too salty. i guess old italian mafia guys have lost their discriminating palate and like a lot of salt.
not having gotten any at the contini, we asked what the dessert specials were. this evening it was something akin to a fruit tiramisu and a cake with chocolate mousse. we got one of each, plus two cappuccinos, a grappa and a sambuca (again, i couldn't remember what sambuca was so i ordered one).
the fruit thing was ok, but almost too light and too non-special. the chocolate mousse was also ok though not he best. jessie liked the cake it was on. it was almost more a crust than a cake, but sort of a little softer than a crust. i again thought it was ok, but not the best chocolate mousse i've ever had. we also remembered that we had our dessert from earlier, the two-tone tart, in the room, so i was fine leaving things as they were at "le condor" and heading back.
back in the room, we dug into the two-tone tart and were disappointed to find it wasn't mousse, but more like a super sugary, very thick pudding. it was almost super stiff frosting (and we were eating it at room temperature and it was still thick). it was way too sweet for us (and that's really saying something when it's too sweet for both me and jessie). tomorrow our train for florence leaves at 11:30am, so we went to bed resigned to the fact that the chicken place would not be receiving any serious competition for "best restaurant in rome" on our six day whirlwind tour of italian food.
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