Rome: day 2

Just like our first morning in Rome, we woke up on that second morning to beautiful sunny skies. Breakfast on the terrace, once again provided by Ricardo, with the "what are we going to do today" discussion over cappuccinos and crunchy bread. Since our Roma Pass gave us one more free entry to any museum in Rome, we decided to start off with a trip to the National Museum. It was, after all the most expensive museum in Rome, so why not take a look and then head over to the Vatican/Sistine Chapel/St. Peters Cathedral.
Getting to the National Museum required a ride on Rome's 2 track subway system. After asking the man behind the bar to help the brainless tourists how to get through the entrance gate with our Roma Pass, we were off and running. It was simple to see even early in our trip that the transportation system in Europe rocks. Cars are non-essential since their train/subway/bus system is efficient, timely, frequent and accessible. The US could really learn a thing or two about getting around...that's for sure. The only draw back, is the higher threat to pick-pocketing in all of the stations. Mass people, crammed together with tourist's wallets precariously hanging from their back pockets are just asking to get picked. In fact, there were a few times on throughout our trip where Nick and I were tempted to pick a few pockets just because it was so easy. (Note: we wouldn't actually DO this and even if we did it would just be to prove a point after giving the wallet back to the clueless tourist.) Of course we saw the over-cautious tourist walking around with their backpacks on the front of their bodies, emulating a pregnant woman's bulging belly. They just looked ridiculous (especially the men) and oh-so tourist-esk. There's a middle ground somewhere ~ protect your stuff, but don't be paranoid...something I battled with daily considering Rick Steve's constant reminder.
Anyways...I totally digressed. So...the national museum was totally boring and a waste of time. That may sound harsh, but considering we only had 2 FULL days in Rome and a lot to see, I would have rather spent our time exploring the city and their different districts and admiring the super old buildings and women walking around with high heals, pushing strollers on cobble stone streets while eating Gelato (of course we did this, but I wanted more). The only good thing out of our visit to the museum was seeing this sculpture:

and comparing this man's butt to Nick's rather large (and lovely if you as me) booty:


The fact that I was STARVING while touring the endless 4 levels of this museum (and a basement full of coins ~ riveting I tell you, just riveting) wasn't helpful. So I begged and pleaded to get some food AND get the heck out of that place, I got my way and the next panini/pizza joint we stumbled upon was ours! I learned a valuable lesson that day: When going to a museum, make sure I am well rested, full and have at least one glass on wine in me to take the edge off. Those sculptures and paintings are a lot more fun to look at when you almost see two of them.

After the much appreciated and needed calorie session, we hopped on the subway again and headed to the Vatican. I learned on our short train ride there that the Vatican is in it's very own teeny, tiny country (that's why the Roma Pass couldn't be used). We thought if we entered through the St. Peter's side, the line would go faster, but boy where we wrong. That monstrous courtyard (something that took me about 10 minutes to get over) was absolutely packed full of people.
So we walked around the country (he-he), walked right up to the ticket booth, bought our tickets for the Vatican (basically a museum), which would take us into the Sistine Chapel and then in to St. Peters (at which point we found out was free to get into which was probably why there were so many people in line ~ metal detector security). Rick's walking tour left me wanting more since I knew what we were looking was throughout the museum was much more riveting. Preserved mummies, a whole bunch of Egyptian stuff: and massively huge sculptures,
marble coffins, hallways filled with carved head figures
and tapestries 30 feet tall that gave off optical illusions.


But we took what we could get, pretended we knew what we were looking at, ease dropped on a few private tours (those are everywhere in every city) and carried on.
The Sistine Chapel was amazing, although I must admit that I was expecting it to be bigger with a more grand entrance. We basically came down a steep staircase after touring the Vatican and entered a room packed with tourists looking up and anti-photography Nazis erasing poached photos of the ceiling on cameras. But back to the point, the paintings were incredible. Depth, dimension, detail...all things perfectly demonstrated thanks to Michelangelo's amazing work ethic and dedication. It finally dawned on me why this was such a big deal, especially after seeing more paintings on other ceilings/walls in other cities. Michelangelo understood how to convey 3-D on a flat surface and was gifted enough to successfully paint it...even while laying inches away from the ceiling, on his back, in a hammock-like apperatice, for days on end. That's dedication. The question I asked Nick after leaving the room: "How did he go to the bathroom from way up there?" Anyone?
The Sistine chapel lead into St. Peters massivity, I mean Cathedral. Please don't be upset with me when I say this (remember this would have been my 4th Big site-seeing activity for the day and I was getting a bit tired) but I was kinda turned-off by St. Peters. Yes it is ginormous. Yes it is beautiful. Yes, I am sure they fill all those seats (Easter and Christmas especially), but it just seemed soo...Gaudy. Too much. Too rich. Too grandiose...if I may be blunt...too focused on appearance. This was a church? Where was the message of humility that Jesus sent when he was here? I couldn't find it. But we did find a few dead popes in their tombs, lots of little cherubs carved and mounted on the walls, magnificent murals, high arched doors at the entrance and beautiful columns supporting the entire structure. It was beautiful, I guess I was just overwhelmed at the thought that people worship Jesus here.
So we left and I asked Nick if we could just sit for a bit...sometimes a girl just needs to observe her surroundings on the bench in the sunshine. I found this was an effective way for me to get my rests in throughout the trip: I request a sit break and Nick would bust out the map/Rick Steves and get our barrings. We decided no more organized sight seeing would be on our agenda that day, only exploring. So we headed on foot, walked along the Tevere River for a mile or so, then stumbled upon the cutest area in all of Rome, in my humble opinion: Trastevere.
Narrow streets, Restaurants everywhere with fun bistro seating in the allys, eccentric variety of shops offering decent priced goods, Gelaterias, gorgeous vines traipsing the buildings and just an overall feeling of quaint. We strolled and admired this area for a good hour. We knew we were in a big city, but this district felt like a small town. In fact we loved this place so much, that after leaving and exploring the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and tons of beautiful buildings like these:

we immediately walked the mile and a half back to Trastevere to find our dinner spot. A family ran restaurant with 10 tables and the ease to turn away guests once all the tables were full. Luckily, a nice Italian Couple shared their table of 4 with us...giving us the last two seats in the house and the title of the only tourists eating there. The hand made pasta was amazing and the house wine 2 Euro. Even though the panna cotta was only sub-par, we were happy none-the-less.
Around 11pm, we hit the streets yet again, taking an alternative route back to our B&B...about 2.5 miles away. Rome, day 2, officially topped out as our "most miles traveled by foot" for our entire 3 weeks in Italy. A welcomed title considering the streets are safe, the sights are well lit and walking off a pound of pasta before tucking into bed just feels better.