Vatican
After breakfast, we were bused over to the Vatican and had a local guide take us through the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St Peters Basilica. We expected to see over-the-top opulence and we were not disappointed.
We started the tour by going into the Vatican museums and seeing a large number of statues, and then we entered a hall of enormous tapestries that displayed maps of the various Italian states and cities. When we got to the Sistine Chapel, we were not allowed to enter as a guided group so we were just given some free time to look at the paintings on the walls and roof on our own. We saw people lining up to go up to a priest in the corner who looked like he was giving out blessings. So Lisa and I along with one other person from our group stood in line and asked him to give us a blessing even though we were not Catholic. He was from Nigeria and was very welcoming and talked with us for a little while before giving us a blessing.
From the museum, we walked to St Peters Basilica which was enormous. Probably one of the highlights there was seeing mosaics on the wall that were so detailed that they looked like paintings.
We then went through the piazza in front of St Peters Basilica toward our bus. I tried to picture the huge crowds gathered there for the Christmas Day message from the Pope.
Castel Gandolfo and Barberini Gardens
When we got to the bus, we were driven out to the summer retreat of the Popes located about 16 miles outside of town around a volcanic lake called the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo. The current Pope no longer used this place so he opened up to the public back in 2014 for tours to help the local economy there.
Castel Gandolfo and the attached Villa Baberini was located in an area full of ancient history. Located high in the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano, it was near the location of the capital of the Latin League and the location of Emperor Domitian villa. We had to hike up a steep hill for a couple of hundred yards to a piazza containing a church and several restaurants and stores right outside the gates of the villa. There was a wedding taking place in the church at the time. We were able to take a quick peek at the breathtaking view of the lake before going into the Castel and it was breathtaking.
We were first escorted through the walls surrounding the Castel and brought into a courtyard that had several “Pope mobiles” on display. We were then broken into two groups, taken through security, and escorted into the mansion. The mansion mostly consisted of ornate offices and some displays of Papal garments. As we were going through one series of rooms, our guide walked us through how President Bush was required to wait in each room for a set of time (5 min, 10 min, etc) before moving to the next room and sitting. The bedroom had a rather simple bed that we were told that two Popes had died in.
We were then taken to some buses so that we could tour the gardens. As they drove us around the grounds, we were able to see several flowers and cypress gardens as well as some tree-lined roads, statuary, chicken coops, olive trees, and some cattle. We were let out at the gardens and at the ruins of an ancient tunnel complex built for Roman Emperor Domitian.
Dinner in Rome
That evening we took the optional tour called the “Roman Drive and Dinner.” We took a short bus ride around the city to see some more ancient sites to include Circus Maximus, the old Roman wall around the city, Baths of Caracalla, Castel Sant’Angelo, Justice Building, and several sites.
We eventually got to a restaurant where we enjoyed a four-course dinner while being serenaded by opera singers. We were all crowded into a small room with a lot of other tourists and seated with almost half of us with our backs to the stage. Four opera singers performed at various times during the dinner with both serious and slapstick performances. At one time, one of the female singers came around teasing and singing to individual people and one of them happened to be Sam. Overall, the dinner and show were good, but for the price, I wish it was less crowded or at least my seat facing the stage.