Rome

I thought about how to make use of the two weeks we have between hiking the TMB and Oktoberfest in Munich.  It makes sense to travel in Italy because Doris has never been there and there are some places I'd like to visit again, like Cinque Terre and Tuscany.  There are a few ways to go from Geneva to Italy:  by train to Milan, and then to other parts of Italy, or fly to somewhere in Italy and start our trip from there.  Eventually I decided to fly from Geneva to Rome and work our way up north to Cinque Terre, Tuscany and Umbria, and eventually to Venice.

I found a B&B through Booking.com that is about 2 blocks from the Vatican.  Vatican Charme is a 4-room B&B in a big apartment building.  It has a another unit downstairs.  Antonella Monti who owns the place runs the place very well.  The inside of the B&B is modern, spacious and clean.  We stayed there for four nights for about US$500.

I've been to Rome a couple of times and the place that sticks to my mind is the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.  Sure, the Pantheon and Colosseum are nice but it doesn't beat the paintings by the old masters in the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.  Staring at the ceiling at Michelangelo's painting in the Sistine Chapel is an experience you will never forget.  You think you are in a museum or art gallery but you are actually inside a chapel.  It took him four years to complete it.  Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside the chapel but you can read about it here.

It takes more than 2 to 3 days to see all the interesting sites in Rome.  It has a very long history.  We just went to some of the major ones.  Here are some of them:

Piazza Navona

Piazza Venezia

Trevi Fountain

Inside of the Colosseum

The Forum

A Panoramic View of the inside of the Pantheon

One of the things I did not do was buy advance tickets to the Vatican Museum online.  For some reason I forgot.  It turned out to be a blessing.  If you did not buy tickets online in advance you probably have to wait in a very long line for perhaps 2 hours to get into the museum.  If you buy it online, you probably won't have to wait long to get in.  However, the B&B where we stayed is near the Vatican and there are several agencies bundling selling tickets down the street.  These companies buy blocks of tickets in advance and add a few euros to the ticket price and bundle it with a tour guide.  You don't have to wait in line to get in.  It is usually a big group.  Ours has 24.  They provide a remote headset system which you can hear the tour guide very well.  When I came on a tour about 10 years ago you can hear a lot of static in the headsets.

The Vatican Museum probably holds one of the most priceless collection of museum quality art in the world.  In the old days the church hold so much power that all kings, queens, rich people of Christian countries give their most precious art to the Church or Pope.  Many of these art pieces are never shown to the public.  Even the ones that are shown are masterpieces worth a lot of money.  Walking through the museum is like a walk through art history.  Without a tour guide it is very difficult to understand what you are seeing.  Our guide is an Englishman and he explained the art pieces and the history very well.  Before we enter the museum he explained some of the art in the Sistine Chapel.  He is not allowed to talk in the Chapel.

Ceiling of Vatican Museum hallway

St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Basilica

Sculpture in the Vatican Museum

Toe sculture 

Rome is a busy place, especially in the summer.  The tourist attractions are widely spread out.  Even though you can walk from one to another, it is quite a walk.  The city has quite a good bus and subway system.  You can buy a bus ticket for 1.5€ from a machine at a bus stop or a convenience market or stand.  The ticket can be used unlimited ride on buses for 100 minutes.  On subways you can only use it once.  If you can figure our the bus routes it may be the most efficient way to cover the city.  Otherwise, just follow the crowd to where they are going.