We elected to get up early this morning so that we could get to St. Peter’s Basilica before the crowds roll in with the tour groups after about 9:30 AM. We set the alarm for 6:00 AM, planning to leave the room by 7:30 AM. It generally takes us about 1.5 hours to get ready, eat some breakfast and get our backpacks ready for the day. Showering here is slower than at home, the water pressure is usually low, and they use hand held shower nozzles that are not as easy to use when they are in their stationary position. In addition, the bathrooms are small, and the showers are, for the most part, tiny, so we can’t share the bathroom space as much as we normally do, extending the time it takes us to both to get ready.
The hotel provides bags of bakery items for breakfast around 7:00 AM that they place in a basket hanging by our door. There is usually one bag of rolls, and one bag with plain and custard filled croissants delivered each morning. We also have a small Nespresso machine for coffee. There is fresh fruit in a bowl in the lobby, so we had two bananas with our pastries.
We left the room on time at 7:30 AM, and walked to the nearest M1 Metro Station, Repubblica, about 10 minutes away. We needed to ride to the Ottaviano Stop, which is the closest Metro stop to St. Peter’s. Before we could take the metro, we had to purchase our 72 hour Roma Transportation Passes in the automated machine that only took cash. We used two Euro 20.00 bills for the two tickets that totaled Euro 36.00 and we got Euro 4.00 back in change. With passes in hand, we rode to the Ottaviano Stop, and then walked about six blocks to the Basilica. There was already a short line to go through security, but we were through that in about 10 minutes. We headed inside the Basilica and walked around. The Pieta was blocked off for some reason, you could not get up close to it.
We saw that they were having a Mass at one of the side chapels, the same one we had gone to Mass at the last time we were here. It was starting at 9:00 AM, so we headed into the cordoned off side chapel area. Mass was pretty short, there was not any singing, nor a homily. There was a decent crowd, but not nearly as many as the pews could hold. Mass was over in about thirty minutes.
We walked around some more inside the Basilica and then went to the gift shop near the Sacristy. We purchased a small bottle, and took it to the Sacristy for them to fill with holy water. We get a small container of holy water each time we come to St. Peter’s to have at home.
Afterward, we headed outside the Basilica to go to the gift store over by the bathrooms. It is much larger than the one inside the Sacristy area. This is also the area where you go to purchase tickets to go up to the top of the Dome. Stephanie wanted to purchase a small crucifix for our breakfast room, so we did that, and then visited the toilette just downstairs from the gift store. It was still too early for our Scavi Tour at 11:15 AM, so we just wandered around inside the Basilica taking a few more photos. It was a bright sunny day, so the inside of the Basilica was well illuminated with natural sunlight for photos.
Stephanie asked an attendant how to get to the Scavi Office, and he told us where to go to get there, which was farther away than I had thought. We headed in that direction, we did not want to be late for our tour, and we needed to make sure we went the correct way. The instructions had been to go to the right at the end of the building next to the Basilica, and to look for the Swiss Guards.
The instructions the attendant gave us were accurate, at the end of the building, there was a single x-ray scanner for bags that we had to go through first, and then wait in a line. We were too early for our tour, so the Swiss Guard asked us to wait out of the way to let the people coming for the earlier 11:00 AM tour go by. At 11:05 AM, we were directed to the Scavi Office, where we turned in our voucher for our actual tickets for our 11:15 tour. There were quite a few folks there waiting with us, it looked like we would have a full group, which is limited to 20 persons.
It was just about time for the tour to start, our tour guide had already come out to greet us, when a young couple came up with two small children, one an infant, and an older lady. The older lady was young mother’s mother, who was going to watch the children since the age limit was a minimum of 15 years old for the tour. As soon as the girl arrived, she asked the guide to delay the tour, she needed to nurse the baby before the tour left. I think everyone there felt that was a little rude, we had all arrived at the prescribed time, and they had come late, and now needed at least 5-10 minutes for the feeding, which she did right there in a discrete way.
Then the couple had to figure out where to meet the grandmother and children after the tour, and that took another five minutes or more, all while the rest of us waited. The guide asked where everyone was from, and that couple was from California, go figure. As we got ready to start the tour, guess who wanted to be first in line for everything, yes it was our California friends. It was a classic example of Millennials in action. No regard for time, or anyone else. I overheard the girl say, “I don’t want to be first or last”, but most of the time they pushed their way to the front, or, even worse, we were waiting on them to join the rest of the group as we passed from one site to another. Finally, someone from our group that was from Norway actually said something to them about staying up with the group. They just had no clue about how they were effecting everyone else.
Other than “Mr. and Mrs. California” the tour was pretty interesting. The only downside was that it was really warm and humid for the entire tour. There were electric sliding glass doors that the guide operated to keep out the air conditioning. It must have had to do with maintaining a certain temperature and humidity to help with the preservation of the ruins.
The tour was mostly about the pagan burial site that was in the location where the first Basilica was built by Constantine. The Romans had built all of these crypts for burials, mostly by rich families. When Constantine promoted the Christian faith, he basically filled in this cemetery and built the first Basilica over the top of that. The old burial crypts had to all be filled in to support the weight of the new church. It was hard to follow and harder to explain here, but there seems to be a direct link to the site of the first and present churches in relation to where St. Peter was buried. In fact, there were several things built over the same spot over time, the purported spot where Peter was buried, including the main altar of the current Basilica.
There were bone fragments that we saw in a glass case that were claimed to be the bone fragments of St. Peter. It was interesting, especially the fact that what we were seeing had at one time been at ground level and above, but was now entirely under the current Basilica’s floor. I think the guide put it in good perspective, what we were seeing is a combination of science and faith with regard to really knowing if these are in fact the bones of St. Peter.
The tour ended up in the crypt under St. Peter’s where many of the popes are entombed. Of course, we could not take any photos on this tour at all, and it would have been difficult anyway, the lighting was very low in most of the areas we visited. It was nice that we ended back inside the Basilica again, we could get one last visit inside before we headed on to do some other things. For some reason, the area near the Pieta was now open, and so we were able to get closer up and take better photos of this masterpiece by Michelangelo.
It was about 1:45 PM when we finished up at the Basilica, and we were hungry for some lunch. On the walk back to the metro station, we stopped at a sandwich shop to get some lunch. The sandwiches were a bit pricey, but good. The location was close to the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s so apparently, it comes with premium pricing, but we needed some food and some water. We could not bring big backpacks on the Scavi Tour, so we did not bring any bottled water with us this morning. We ate our take away sandwiches outside at a table and after lunch, headed back to the Metro to take it south to visit the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano and the Scala Sancta, or Holy Stairs. We needed to go nine stops and get off at the Giovanni Metro stop, then walk to the Scala Sancta, which we intended to go to first.
Unfortunately, the Scala Sancta was closed for their lunchtime break, which is common here, and would not reopen until 3:00 PM, so we headed back across the street to visit the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano while we waited for the Scala Sancta to reopen.
The Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano is one of the four major basilicas in Rome, and is also the Church for the Diocese of Rome, for which the Pope is the Archbishop. During our last visit to Rome in 2016, this was one of the Basilicas with “Holy Doors” that are only open during a holy year, which is usually every 25 years unless there is a special declaration by the Pope, which is what happened for 2016.
It is quite a large church inside, and has very large statues of all of the Apostles, as well as St. Paul. It is also very colorful inside. We spent about 30 minutes in the church, looking at all of the beautiful paintings and altars. Stephanie sat and read some about the Basilica from our Rick Steves guidebook. This also gave us an opportunity to take a rest break.
We headed back across the street to the Scala Sancta at about 2:45 PM to get in line to enter. I thought it would be a good idea to get there a little early, and I was correct. We were about the fifth and sixth persons in line and shortly thereafter, several large tour groups showed up. The guides obviously know the times it is open, and scheduled their tours to get here close to the 3:00 PM re-opening time.
From their website, we have provided the following description of the Scala Sancta:
The sanctuary gets its name from the 28 marble steps of the Holy Stairs.
According to an ancient Christian tradition, Saint Helena (†335), the mother of Constantine, had the stairs transported from Pontius Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem to Rome. It is believed that Jesus climbed these stairs several times the day he was sentenced to death, thus, they are known as the “Scala Pilati” or “Scala Sancta” (the Holy Stairs or Pilate’s Stairs). The first written testimonies to this renowned memory of the Passion are found in a passage from the Liber Pontificalis dating from the time of Sergius II (844-847) and in a Papal Bull issued by Pope Pascal II (1099-1119).
It is also known that the stairs were originally placed in the complex of the Lateran Palaces (Patriarchium), the ancient seat of the Papacy. Under the supervision of Sixtus V in 1589, the stairs were placed in front of the Sancta Sanctorum, creating the core of the Sanctuary that can be seen today. The Sanctuary was restored by Pius IX (1846-78) and an adjoining convent was built and entrusted to the Passionist Fathers on February 24, 1853.
We entered and Stephanie purchased a booklet with the history and also some prayers to say as you climb the Holy Stairs. You are only allowed to climb the stair steps on your knees, and there are 27 steps. The original marble steps are covered in wood, but have several small glass viewports to be able to see the original marble steps underneath at the location of the blood stains. The entire stairs had just been recently renovated, and the glass viewports were really clear. Last time we were here in 2016, they had been so scratched or discolored, it was impossible to see through them.
Although we had beat the tour groups inside, there was a lot of noise and commotion from them as they entered the building. There is also a chapel here, and it is accessible by a set of regular steps that you can walk up off to one side. Most of the people climbing the Holy Stairs on their knees, like us, were saying prayers as they went slowly up to the top. However, there were a few people from the tours that just climbed them on their knees, not stopping to pray and contemplate the meaning, just trying to get to the top to keep up with their tour group since they are on tight schedules. That was a little distracting because they had to make their way through everyone going slowly upward. Once we got to the top of the steps, we went to see the small chapel and then headed outside.
We walked back to the Metro Station to head back toward the center of Rome to return to the area near the Trevi Fountain where we need to go to pick up our tickets for tomorrow’s papal audience.
It has been a little difficult to directly access the area between the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps because the main Metro Station for that area, Barberini, is shut down for repairs. We had to stop at the Spagna Metro stop, spagna meaning Spanish for the Spanish Steps. It was quite a hike from there to the location to pick up the tickets, the Bishops’ Office for United States Visitors to the Vatican, which was just a couple of blocks from the Trevi Fountain. When we arrived, they had our name on a list, and, after checking us in, we headed up some stairs to get our tickets from the Seminarians that were actually distributing them. Upstairs, they checked us off of another list, and gave us our two tickets. There was a short orientation presentation that was given by a nun, and she was great. She provided everyone with some good tips on when to arrive and where to sit to be closer to the outside to see the Pope when he rode through the crowds behind barricades..
After the orientation, we left and walked in the direction of the Pantheon to visit our favorite bar/deli there called Antica Salumeria. On the way, we visited a large church named Chiesa di Sant’ Ignazio di Loyola. It has one of the most beautiful ceilings of any church in Rome, it has colorful fresco paintings on the entire ceiling. They were offering free audio guides inside, but we were not planning to stay long, and declined. We did spend about 20 minutes inside looking at the ceiling, and several of the very ornamental altars.
We had sort of an interesting experience here, at the entrance to the church, there was a lady with a basket who was very adamant about collecting money from everyone before they went inside. We were not sure if she was actually representing the church, or herself. We opted to leave a small donation in the collection boxes that were inside the entrance of the church, knowing those donations were truly going toward the preservation of the church. When we were leaving, she insisted once again on collecting money from us, but Stephanie told her we had given inside and we just walked by. We found it hard to believe the church would have someone outside using such hard sell tactics to collect money.
We left there and continued our walk to the Pantheon. When we finally arrived at the piazza outside the front entrance to the Pantheon, we walked over to the Antica Salumeria. We needed a break, so we had a liter of their red house wine and sat inside watching people come and go. We talked with a couple of the workers there, who gave us some salami and cheese samples with our wine.
We noticed that they were not giving out as many free samples as the last times we were here, but it was also really busy inside, and we did see several tours from cruise ships, they were all wearing their cruise ship tour stickers. Maybe they know when the cruise ships are in the nearby port, and they don’t put out as much of the free samples, knowing the cruise tourists will not likely be purchasing anything, just eating all of the samples.
After the refreshment break, we needed to head home, and it was quite a walk. Rome has good transportation with a lot of buses and the three Metro Lines, but the faster Metro is not as extensive as in some large cities, and generally, it is easier to walk than to take a bus. By the time you walk to a bus stop, and then wait on a late arriving bus, is not much less distance or time than the walk home.
It was almost a mile back to our hotel, so we started out with our Google Map directions. It was a pretty long walk, and the route took us up and down some pretty steep hills, so it was tiring on our already weary legs. The Google route may have been the shortest, and most direct, but it seemed extra hilly.
We were not at our hotel long before we needed to go to dinner, and tonight we were walking to our favorite restaurant in Rome, Osteria della Suburrra, not far from the hotel. We arrived a little after they opened at 7:00 PM, and were surprised to see how empty it was. We wanted a quieter table inside, and we were seated in an area off to the side of the main entrance. We ordered our customary liter of house wine, red of course, and then ordered our food. The menu looked the same, but in newer condition than the last time we visited in 2016.
The wine was good, but the food was not. Stephanie ordered the tortellini, which in the past had been to die for, but tonight it was just average at best. I ordered Lasagna, and it was barely warm, and pretty tasteless. We had ordered bread and then asked for some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, Our waiter poured some onto a plate and that was all we were apparently getting. Normally, most restaurants just leave the bottles on the table so you can serve yourself. We had so looked forward to eating here, but it seemed to be under a new owner, and/or maybe new cooks.
Something was very different about it. The service was slow, and there were not many people inside eating, actually we were the only ones eating inside until right before we left. There were quite a few tables outside, and they were pretty full, but overall, there were not many people eating here. It just was not anywhere near the quality of food it had been before. In the past, it had seemed to be a favorite of locals, and was always crowded, but apparently, no longer.
After we paid, Stephanie asked the waiter about the ownership, and he seemed to delay in his response, and would not look at her when talking to her. He said it was still the same owner, but seemed defensive about it, so we had our doubts, In any event, we were not eating there again, and were so disappointed that our favorite eatery here in Rome was no longer worth visiting.
We headed home, we had an early wake up alarm at 5:00 AM tomorrow. We need to be in line at St. Peter’s Basilica by around 7:00 AM to get through the security to get our good seats at the papal audience. We had enjoyed our full day touring in Rome.