Day One in Roma: Vatican City and the Trevi Fountain

We woke up early Monday morning and prepared to visit Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain and take the city bus tour. We bought tickets for the Vatican the night before for 12:30, so we had a pretty strict schedule to stick to. The owner of our apartment gave us a map that indicated where good restaurants, bus stops and metro stations are. We walked to the bus stop to jump on bus 46 that he said would take us to Vatican City. Once the bus arrived it was jammed packed but we forced our way on with our stroller pushing people out of the way. We made a couple stops when Rachelle looked at me and said, "I feel like were going the wrong way" I ignorantly replied with, "Really? I don't really know, but I don't feel that". After a few more minutes Rachelle asked a guy standing next to us if this bus went to Vatican City. He said that the buses in Rome don't make a lot of sense but he thought it was in the opposite direction. So we quickly decided to get off at the next stop to find a different bus. We walked across the street to a different stop that would take us in the opposite direction and figured we would at least ask the driver if he was stopping at Vatican City. There was no wind, no shade and nowhere to sit. It was a thousand degrees hot and the bus was not coming soon enough. Rachelle then asked if I had internet connection on my phone to check GPS. It's very rare when I do have connection, so I didn't have high hopes that I would this time. However, surprisingly, I DID! So I did a walking direction search to Vatican City and it said it would take about 12 minutes. We figured it was better than waiting for something that probably wouldn't help us anyways. We began the walk as a different bus passed us and we decided we would get on. As I watched the GPS and our location compared to where we wanted to be, we were somewhat heading in the right direction. Then we went through a tunnel and crossed a bridge and quickly got off track. I pushed the button requesting a stop and soon after we got off.

We only had a few blocks to walk and we were there! It was a relief to finally be somewhere known, and oddly enough we felt a lot better to be in a touristy area. We made it with 15 minutes to spare so we took a few pictures and then made our way to the Vatican Museum which was about at 15-20 min walk. The museum was a little confusing but had A LOT of statues and other interesting artifacts. We walked the the whole museum and realized we somehow missed the Sistine Chapel. We then realized about midway through the museum we avoided some pretty tall stairs, and those were the ones leading to the chapel, figures. So we then had to go all the way back through the crowed museum and go up the stairs, with the girls and the lovely stroller.

After almost another whole museum to walk through, we finally made it into the chapel. It was so much more than I ever expected! I walked in and took the LONGEST video and snapped a billion pictures. I then heard guards yelling at other people to not take pictures. So I snuck away laughing because I was so obvious with my filmings of the chapel. The guards also make you be quiet in there. If the hum of chatter gets too loud they yell "SHH!!! NO TALKING!!" And their "shh's" are as loud as car horns! You can tell they've had practice. It's probably apart of the interview process. When we were getting ready to leave I wanted one more picture and as soon as I took it I got told to put it away. At least he was nice about it, because Rachelle said she saw someone get kicked out for taking pictures. Yikes!

After Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel, we bought tickets for a 24 hour city bus tour so that it would be good for the next day as well. Once we got on the bus, it felt so good to finally sit! We got off at the Trevi Fountain and again I was in total shock at what it really was. It was beautiful and felt good to stand next to because mist would hit us and slightly cool us down. Because did I mention, it was deadly hot? We got video and pictures of us throwing our coins over our shoulder to give us good luck to return to Rome and the fountain. We should be guaranteed because between the 2 of us we have 4 lucky coins in there. I'm impressed with the pictures we took, becasue you can see the coins in mid flight. I know, I'm just awesome like that.




We got back on the city bus tour and took it to the end which was back at Vatican City. We found the bus stop that appeared would take us to our area by our apartment. Luckily, my GPS was still working correctly and showed where we were. I examined the map for a VERY long time to find where our apartment was, because the map from the owner is zoomed in to only a couple blocks. I was surprised I was actually able to find it! We got on and could actually sit down. I watched the GPS and we went in the direction I had hoped and we would and were brought right to the end of our street! It was very exciting for us to finally have a successful transportation experience.

We went to dinner, sweaty, sticky and smelly (at least I was, I will admit that). Once finished and walking back to our apartment I said to Rachelle we needed to find a store to by a bottle of wine since it was our last night. I kind of freaked out because we weren't finding one. But alas, we did and ended up spending 10 Euro on this bottle. The first one we bought in La Spezia was a little over 2.

After the girls were in bed, we had our wine on the balcony and stayed up far too late. I think Rachelle went to bed at 3am, and then that was when I decided to write my Florence post staying up until about 4:30am. I think you all can tell how that decision worked out.

Our first day in Rome was busy, hot and go go go. We only had one more left!

Video of our coin toss
Password: Trevi

Trevi Fountain Coin Toss from Megan on Vimeo.