The Vatican

The days keep rolling, and I keep doing more and more shit. Today, Stef wanted to visit the Vatican - something she had never done, despite being to Rome many times, and something I was also very keen to see it. Above everything, the best part about travelling with Stef was the fact that we could easily communicate and ask questions to the locals. She either knew nice restaurants or at least knew how to ask people where they were.

We started at the main Plaza of the Vatican, adorned with a tall colonnade that encircles the square and provides a platform for 140 marble statues to situate themselves. Saints, popes, bishops, and other religious figures are the main figures that look down on those that wander through the plaza. This was impressive enough, and it doesn’t even begin to mention the biblical sized Basilica that overlooks it all. We then continued to simply wander the rest of Rome as we weren't going to get into the Vatican Museum until tomorrow, so figured we would get up early and do it then. We went to the supreme court, to see the magnificence of that building before going to the main attraction for the time being, the Castel Sant'Angelo. The bridges leading up to the castle and the castle itself were incredible. It is crazy the number of things you can see in this city without travelling far at all. This is particularly true for the areas around the Vatican. Just standing on the bridges near the Castel Sant'Angelo, you could see different monuments that spread across the whole city. It is difficult to comprehend how it must have looked hundreds of years ago, given it is hard to fully understand the size and scale of the buildings even today.

After seeing a few things along the way (Piazza Navona and the Largo di Torre Argentina, most importantly), we made our way to the Campo de' Fiori. This was a little market that is called something like the flower market in Italian. When Stef was last here, there were beautiful flowers everywhere, but this time, it was just a regular market, and most places were once again selling the same stuff. With that disappointment, we didn't stick around for too long before heading to the pantheon. Although quite busy, it was an incredible thing to see and one of the biggest monuments in an incredibly famous city. The line as too long for either of us to want to wait through, so we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. Once again, it was very touristy but cool to see in person. Although cool, it is difficult to spend more than a few minutes here because of all the number of people, so we went back to the Airbnb for a shower. Stef had us booked into a very fancy restaurant, so we got ready and headed there.

Because we were early, we stopped off at an incredibly nice rooftop bar for a cocktail. We then made our way to the proper restaurant for dinner. After a few drinks, she had already decided what we were going to order. She refused to tell me what we were going to eat but assured me it would be good. The first meal was a standard Italian pasta dish, although very good it was nothing too adventurous. The second serving consisted of ox tail and pigs stomach lining (tripe). I do not remember the names of the dishes, unfortunately, but they were both good. The ox tail was far better than the tripe, as it was a bit chewy. After she finally broke the news of what I had eaten, we eventually figured out that I had already eaten Lampredotto, which is a traditional Florentine sandwich with tripe, anyways. At this point, we were incredibly full and drunk and figured we should get going. She then informed me that most trains in Italy stopped at 11, and given it was 10:45 and had to catch 2 trains to get home, we could only run to the station and hope. Although we made the first train, the second was done for the day. Some more running later, we made it onto the bus and found our way home eventually. By the time we got to bed, it was early in the morning, and we had already decided we had to get in line early for the Vatican Museum the next day. Not only this, but I had to make my way to my accommodation in Rome after it all. Meaning, it was going to be an interesting day tomorrow.Read more