Rome

We left the apartment this morning at 7:45am to make our way to St. Peter’s square to be part of the papal audience at 10am. Everything we’d read said that security opened between 8-8:30am but it obviously opened a lot earlier than that. By the time we arrived to Vatican City, around 8:15am, it looked half the seats were taken. A quick check with Google...

We were fortunate to find out that the pope was holding a service on Saturday so we decided to fit this into our trip. Tickets are required for the event, but they’re free. In order to get them, you need to visit the Swiss guards who were standing in front of the bronze gate to the left of the basilica. The papal website said you could only get tickets in...

Inside St. Peter’s, many of the previous pope’s are buried in the basment of the basilica. However, Pope John Paul II”s tomb is on the main floor of the church, not in the basement with the others.  Eduardo stopped to say a few prayers while we were there.

This is the largest Roman Catholic church in the world. Every other Catholic church could fit inside this one (not all at once).
The ceilings were huge, and the walls were so ornate. This photos really speak for themselves.

These are the views of the basilica from St Peter’s square. As you can see, there are many, many chairs setup for the summer mass’s. This is another of those surreal moments being in the square that you see on TV when the Pope is addressing the people.

Our second full day in Rome began with a trip to the Vatican. We reserved our tickets online a couple days ago for a 10:30am entrance. After a 15 minute subway ride and a 15 minute walk, we arrived at the wall that separates the Vatican and Rome. And like every other big thing to do in Europe, the line to get in without prearranged tickets was huge. There had to be a...

Below is a quick video of the 4 big things we saw in Rome today.

Even though we were exhausted, we walked another 40 minutes back to the Colosseum and luckily, it was still open. There was still a line to get in, probably 30-40 minutes so while we were standing there, I checked online and was able to buy tickets that were emailed to me. We hopped out of the no-ticket line to the reservation line, which had no line. Then we were in...

When we got to the Spanish Steps, we discovered they were closed for renovation. The photo I got was from above a fence and it’s probably the only time you’ll see them this empty. Our tour with Eleanora ended in Piazza del Popola. To be honest, I don’t remember what the significance of this square is. By this time, we’ve been on the go almost...

Just when I thought the crowds were bad at the Pantheon, then comes Trevi Fountain. It was wall to wall people when we arrived and it’s a very small space. We had to squeeze our way down to get close to the fountain edge. When we got down there, it was difficult to get a photo of ourselves and the fountain background without getting someone else’s head or...