MAJESTIC ITALY Part 9

From there, we took a break to study our road map, and plotted our way to the Pantheon, our next stop, which was to be open till 19:30.  Without flaw, we found our way to the Pantheon, went down some streets that would fall into the "I would not want to be here after dark alone" category, and found our way to the Pantheon and found the doors to be open.  We entered the Pantheon, and gazed at the wonder. During the day, the Pantheon is lit only by a small 'skylight' in the center of its famous dome.  The building is generally of a round shape, and was built before the time of Christ, when it was used as a temple to the Roman gods.  The only reason it has survived to this day in immaculate condition is that it was converted into a Christian church.   Some more video and photo opportunities, then we glanced down at our watches to learn it was about 5:30, dinner was at 6:30, and we had to figure out a way back to the hotel.

We decided to return to the hotel on foot. Going down a major street Victor Emmanuel Way or something like that.  A major wide boulevard. Also a straight shot to the road that leads to St. Peter's square.  The walk was a lot longer than it looked on the map, but we got to enjoy the local atmosphere, got to dodge a lot of cars, and saw the sunset. Now we get to make this walk, in a strange city, after dark.  Luckily our heading was true and we soon spotted the bridge across the Tyber River. Time for some more photo-ops of the many sculptures built into the very ornate bridge, and of the castle in the near background.  We then crossed the bridge, and walked a few more blocks and entered familiar territory. We took a correct left turn without even consulting the map or road signs because we had seen this intersection before.  A gift shop run was made, then a stop in a snack bar for cold beverages.  Then we are back at St. Peter's square where we started this self-exploration journey. A quick walk across the street led us back to our hotel, where I learned that dinner had been pushed back to 6:45, and that gave me some time to relax before dinner.

Dinner would be at the same restaurant as last night, except that we would not have the luxury of the bus. It was about a ten-block walk, and the weather was nice.  We soon made our way to the restaurant, and had another great meal there.  Pasta, perhaps a pork chop, with the salad as the side dish, and a piece of cake.  Again, can't go wrong with Italian dining. Dinner was relaxing, and we all shared stories of where we each went during our free time.  Lively conversation, then we started the walk back to the hotel.  I again decided that after all the walking I had done today, and with Sunday being another full day, to get some sleep.  Catch you tomorrow.

Day 7 - Sunday, November 18, 2001

Welcome to day seven, as you probably guessed, we started the day with breakfast in our hotel.  Breakfast was kind of unique for a couple of reasons, none of which had to deal with the meal itself. The first unusual experience occurred because we chose to use the small secondary elevator to transport us from our room on the third floor, to the breakfast room on the fifth floor. The elevator looked modern enough, although the door was still operated manually.  I say door, as the car had no inside door, so one had to be careful not to lean up against the front wall, which of course was moving.  To make this even more interesting the floor button had to be held in the entire time, and the car moved so slow it was almost agonizing.  Add to this a mechanical interlock that had a quirky personality and would sometimes lock or unlock at the wrong time the doors on the various floors.   It won the nickname as "the scary elevator" and its use thereafter limited to trips up the stairs. After an enjoyable breakfast, as we came across the 4^th floor landing, we noted a big picture window looking out onto a lovely rooftop terrace.  A member of the hotel staff revealed to us that by pressing a button on the wall next to the window, that it was really a sliding door allowing access to the terrace.  Unfortunately, due to the events of September 11^th, most of the terrace is now off limits, guarded by a recently installed fence.  Apparently, not even the hotel staff is allowed beyond this fence to raise the flag on an unused flagpole.

Much of the day today was to be spent in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.  Beginning with the Sunday Mass. As we were to learn this was to be no ordinary Sunday Mass, but a very special one.  This morning we were to celebrate the annual rededication of St. Peters.  This required some last minute changes in the choir's music lineup for today, and a last minute rehearsal after breakfast.  After the rehearsal, those of us who were non-singers, and were named "Cheerleaders" by out tour director started the walk across the street to church.  Access to St. Peter's Square from the sides is limited to a few designated entry points, as demarcated by a fence.  We passed through the gate into the square, and to our first walk among the fountains and obelisk of St. Peters Square.  We then turned and started to head to church.  We noted that the vast majority of the way to be blocked off, except for two small entrances on either side.  Security checkpoints, all bags are subject to hand search, and everybody is scanned with a metal detection wand.  I noted that there is currently a more permanent checkpoint under construction that will have walk through detectors and X-ray machines.   It took a few minutes to clear security, as there was no line when we decided to enter.  We made our way up the porch steps, and then through the designated entrance door.  Ten seconds after entering the church everyone was awestruck.  Nothing can prepare you for your first visit to St. Peters, nothing.  Mere words cannot describe the enormous size of the church, or the quantity of fascinating artworks. 

After checking our watches, we saw that we had some time for self-exploration.  This would be good because even though the choir was to sing here today, the church itself was not on our touring schedule. We started with Michelangelo's Pieta, which is located in the first chapel near where you enter, and had worked our way halfway down the one side of the church just gazing at the artwork before our Tour Director advised us that if we wanted to sit during the service, we had better take our seats.  St. Peters, like a lot of churches in Rome have only a limited number of pews up front, once those fill, the rest of the congregation must stand.  We quickly located the seats up close near the choir area.  We may have been seated but that did not stop eyes from wandering about looking at the artwork of the main alter in the apse, or the papal altar in the center, or the organ, or the interior of the dome, or anywhere else we could see.  Everything looks just absolutely fabulous.

Then, at the appointed time the Mass started.  The 10:30 High Mass at St. Peters.  I knew this was to be no ordinary mass, when there were no less than 80 priests, bishops, and cardinals in the procession.  The whole service was very emotional and seemed to take on a different higher character.   It just seemed all that more powerful.  Our choir and organist added immensely to the celebration with music that just seemed all the better in this fantastic place.  As you may have suspected with all the extra ceremony, the service ran longer than usual.  This causes us to just catch the tail end of the pope's weekly blessing in St. Peter's Square.   The pope just does not wait if the service runs over.   After the blessing, there was an official photo op for choir and non-singers alike with a professional photographer.

After our photo session, we had some time to drop stuff off at our hotel, relax, and hit the gift shop.  As I mentioned the official Vatican gift shop was in the ground level of our hotel.  Therefore we spent the time waiting for our lunch meeting in the gift shop.  Some items were purchased, but most of the goods on sale were high priced.  Mind you they had some real impressive looking artwork in the gift shop.   Our tour guide referred to it as the Vatican Supermarket as it contained a gift shop, art gallery, religious goods store, cafeteria, post office, ice cream parlor, and tobacconist shop. Proving that sometimes it is just as much fun to just walk through the gift shops.

After our gift shop visit, we as a group walked to lunch.  This was to be one of two days where our tour provided lunch, and we would be responsible for dinner. We would be having lunch at the overflow hotel, that is to say the hotel where those who could not fit into the main hotel (The Residenz) were accommodated.  The other hotel was the Hotel Michelangelo, and they served a very good lunch.  Starting with a lasagna type dish, then a breaded chicken filet with potatoes and spinach.  All followed by a piece of cake. For this meal I decided to try the Orange Soda.  In Italy, Orange Soda is not some fake artificially flavored, super sweet orange beverage.  On the contrary, Italian orange soda would be similar to what you get if you carbonated orange juice.   It had a different, yet very pleasing taste than I am used to.  As we dined on our lunch, we noted the sky getting dark outside.  Soon after, we realized that it had begun to rain.  Fortunately this would be the only spell of rain we would encounter the whole trip; unfortunately it would come in the form of a heavy storm.

This did not figure well into my plans, as I had reserved this afternoon for climbing to the top of the cupola at St.Peters.  We finished lunch, exited the hotel and realized just how hard the rain was.  Rather than walking back to our own hotel, we decided to hail a taxi.  Taxis in Rome seem very affordable.  Unlike Assisi, where a taxi charges a flat fare of $2.50 per passenger for anywhere in the walled city.  (Which means he may collect a fare of $40 for a five-minute drive if he fills his 8-passenger minivan, as was often the case with our group). In Rome, taxi's are metered, and it was common to be able to get a ride for $5-$10 for the entire carload. (Though I swear the meter started out at a higher fare during the storm than it did on another ride when it was sunny out)  Whatever, $5 later we were back at our own hotel.  Yes, it was still raining.  As we waited for the elevator up to our room, another group of six came down the stairs and announced they were headed to the cupola.  I quickly dashed up the stairs, got my raincoat, and dashed back down and joined them. Who cares if it’s raining hard, I may never be in Rome again, and I want to do this. 

We crossed the street into St. Peters Square as a group and were immediately disheartened by the sizable queue at the nearest security checkpoint.  After a few minutes we wisely decided to try the other checkpoint, and found a significantly smaller 'queue'.  As in the case of the Coliseum, this was not an orderly line.  Even to get into a church, the line was more of a mob jockeying to get to the security screener first.  After having had practice the day before, we were able to weasel our way through the crowd relatively fast, though it did take some time. Once we passed the checkpoint, we headed not to the church but to an entryway beside the church, as we had been advised the entrance to the cupola was around the side of the church.  Instead we found ourselves at an entry checkpoint to get into the Vatican City proper.  A security agent at this checkpoint was able to advise us of the proper route to the cupola. Up we go again, climbing up the porch in front of St. Peters where we see an entryway to the portico clearly labeled "Cupola à“ This just happened to take us past another site. The Jubilee Door, part of the Vatican's 2000 Jubilee Year celebration.  But we did not actually enter the church instead we continued along the pathway down a sidewalk along the sides of the church, dodging the downspouts that looked more like waterfalls.  This rain isn't getting any better.  I had wisely decided to leave all camera equipment back at the hotel, rather than risk water damage or dropping it. Besides the view would not be worth photography in these conditions.  This was more about an experience than the view.  We were glad to find the ticket office for the cupola to be open, even if we did also notice there was no queue of people waiting to purchase tickets. I suppose that if we are foolish enough to want to climb to the top in the rain, then they will sell us the tickets.  There is an elevator available that will take you up to the roof of the main church building.  From there it is 330 stairs to the top of the cupola.  Of course you are also welcome to climb the stairs from the ground all the way to the cupola.  In fact the ticket price depends on whether or not you use the elevator.  If you take the stairs the whole way, it is 7,000L ($3.50), if you use the elevator to get to the church roof, it is 8,000L ($4.00).  We did not give a second thought to spending the extra 50 cents.  Tickets in hand, we walked down another outside passage to a side door to the church.  Here we met another security checkpoint, and bags were rechecked, and all had to pass a walk-through metal detector scan before starting their accent.

Upon showing our tickets, we were directed to the right.  Stairs are to the left, elevator to the right.  After waiting for the first available car, we began our journey to the cupola.  The first leg, that to the church roof, was really easy thanks to the elevator. Once up on the roof, we exited out into the rain where you could walk along part of the roof.  The entrance to the dome was up a flight of stairs.  That’s one flight of stairs exposed to the elements.  Carefully we climbed up to the cupola entrance. We reentered the building and were pleasantly surprised to find a ramp, which took us up a little bit, then a couple quick stairs to reach the second leg.  The inside of the dome.  Directly above the famous green lettering on a gold background of the cupola, is a catwalk allowing you to gaze into the church from high above.  There was fencing and a guard stationed up there to discourage dropping anything over the side of the railing. We paused here for a few minutes to admire the beauty, and said that this alone would have been worth the price of admission.  But there is more. 

As you exit the interior of the dome, the path forks in two. You must walk down a couple steps, and then make a choice.   You can either turn right and continue your trip to the top of the cupola, or turn left to skip the top of the cupola and start the decent back to the ground.  We chose to continue our trip to the top.  The next segment was taken in what would resemble a funhouse stairway, as a staircase was sandwiched between the interior and exterior walls of the cupola.  This nice gradual ascent was short lived however, when we came upon a long spiral staircase that took us up the relatively vertical part of the cupola, before it started curving inward.  It seemed like this spiral staircase would never end, never give a chance for air, and surely did not provide a handrail. After reaching the top of this spiral staircase, you start the slanted stairs between the two layers of the dome around and around.  Luckily they did plan rest breaks into the climb, where you can step to the side and let more ambitious, or more physically fit tourists bypass you.  In fact there is even one segment as you walk between the slanted layers where the floor is flat for a while.  It's funny but the slant of the hallway makes it hard to walk straight, it seemed like your tilting instead of the hallway. It was here that these became nicknamed the 'fun house stairs'. After a little while the cupola starts curving inwards sharply.  Steep flights of metal stairs have been erected, several flights with each turn bringing you closer to the center of the dome, with the last flight making a sharp turn and heading to the very center itself.  You then go through a doorway and find a real small spiral staircase to break through the top of the cupola to the observatory above. Thanks to a good friend Ron, who leant me his Cupola photos, I can share a couple images with you that were taken the day before.  The last spiral staircase is so tiny the steps barely have room for your feet, and the only handhold is a rope draped down the center of the stairs.   At least this spiral staircase is much shorter than the first one and at the top you have reached your goal, the summit.  Allow me to calm down here from this fine aerobic exercise.  Who needs a Stairmaster in Rome, when they have this? The observation area has two rings an inner covered ring, and an outer exposed ring.  We stepped into the outer ring and discovered that the rain had not stopped, and (FLASH) (PAUSE) (KABOOM), oh great, it started to lightning.  Here we are, at the highest point in Rome, during a lighting storm.  With rain gear, we threw caution to the wind and continued to casually stroll around the observation deck, and caught views of the Vatican Gardens, the Vatican itself, and Rome from up top.  The viability was not as good as I would have liked, but I still got to experience the view, and say I was at the top of St. Peters. When the rain got even harder we moved to the inner circle, where we hung out till it subsided so that we could make our way to the exit door. The exit door is on the exact opposite point of the rotunda from the doorway at the top of the steps.  In other words, they had ingeniously planned two duplicate staircases, one for those going up, the other for those going down.  We made our way around to the exit door, and the down staircase.   It was fun, it was wet, it was real, and we are now ready to go inside. Going down is the opposite of going up. Well except that the tiny spiral staircase did not have a rope down the middle, leaving no good handholds, and the metal stairs were a bit slick. One member of our group did slip and fall; luckily she was only a couple steps from a resting area/landing and didn't get seriously hurt. After that we were more vigilant with our footing. First the numerous flights of metal stairs to get to the outside edge of the dome, then the long staircase between the wall layers, then the much longer spiral staircase.  For a while I thought they were going to have to spiral all the way back down to the ground.  I mean this sucker was long.  It was a relief to hear the voices of some of our group that had already made it down to the landing at the base of the spiral steps.  Some more gradual steps along the two wall layers led us back to the ramp.  Here the ramp meandered up and down, and we passed the doorway where those who chose not to complete their climb could opt to exit, and continued down the ramp.  We then exited the dome, with the very wet and very slick stairway down from the cupola to the church roof.  Upon the church roof, we found it a bit humorous to find a gift shop, (which was closed today), and a comfort station with water fountains and facilities.  By now the rain was getting old, and we dashed across the wet roof, quickly but carefully, amidst the giant sized statues that line the roof front, to the little building that houses the elevator back to the ground level.  At this point, you are apparently on your honor, as you enter the tower, and the stairs and elevator doors are both visible but no one asks to check your ticket.  We took the elevator down, and were glad to see that at the ground level, you take a short hallway directly into the church.

Another chance to see the awe-inspiring church.  Again starting our tour with the Pieta, we eventually got all split up.  I had seen all of the right hand aisle, and the center nave, and noticed a flight of stairs going down.  I decided to follow the people into a crypt like area.  Here the crypts of all the popes lie.  Some fancy and ornate, others dull and plain.  Most notable is that of St. Peter, the first pope.  The viewing is at a distance.  The whole crypt like section is a one-way passage, and the staff seemed to be having a time of it keeping everybody moving in the proper direction, though I noted that no one was going against the grain.  Unfortunately, after the crypt tour, you exit directly to the outside.  Ironically right next to the now closed ticket booth for the cupola.  I knew this sidewalk by now, and merely walked back around to the front of the church and re-entered.  This time I concentrated on the left hand aisle.  With the baptistery, the art museum, which I did not visit, and all sorts of artwork.  It should be noted that at first glance there are a lot of famous paintings in St. Peters. Not so, all the flat artworks are mosaic copies of famous paintings. I also noted that the statue of St. Peter is now protected by ropes to keep the faithful away from rubbing its foot.   Much of his foot has already been rubbed away from this practice.  To describe all the artwork in the church proper would be the subject of a long book.  Suffice to say it is large, immense and breathtaking.

After meeting up and talking with some other members of our tour who had also decided to spend the day exploring St. Peters I decided to return to my hotel.  Carefully going down the front stairs to the plaza level, and returning to St. Peters' Square, then a quick walk across the street to our hotel.   Yes I opted for the elevator. I then returned to my room, where I shed my raincoat, my sweater which had gotten damp, found some dry things, got a drink from the hotel bar, and took the time to relax until our next call.

The next call would be for the tour's formal concert.  Our choir was to provide the opening night performance for some big weeklong musical event at St. Ignatius of Loyola church.  Yes it was still pouring down rain, and mom started the trend of placing the red robe and music folder in a large sized zip lock bag.   It worked. We soon met, boarded the bus, and the bus took us as far as the Victor Emmanuel monument, from which we would have to walk the rest of the way.  We were scheduled to see the Trevi Fountain at this time, but due to the storms, it was voted to bypass it.  It was a short walk to the church, actually the walk back from the church seemed shorter than the walk to church.  By the time we had reached the church the rain stopped, apparently for the evening.  At this time we were permitted to enter the church where we could take a self guided tour until it closed at 19:00. The concert was at 21:00, which left us non-singers, the choice of being locked inside the church, or some free time to explore and get dinner.  We chose the get dinner option. But not before taking a look at the Cupola of this church.   Noteworthy in that the church has a flat roof.  The cupola is merely an optical illusion. Other famous mosaics and artwork that I didn't get much time to appreciate were present. 

We then exited the church before they locked the doors, and decided on dinner.  It was mentioned to us that if we hadn't seen the Pantheon it was only a block away, and that if we had a craving for McDonalds there was one right by the Pantheon.  No cravings for McDonalds were detected.  We scoped out what looked like a small tiny cozy pizza place.  Upon inquiring with the host about availability for dinner, we were informed that due to the storm, they had an empty dining room, hot food, good atmosphere, and looking for customers. Sold.  We entered the pizza place, and our initial party of eight was taken back to a dining room.  The restaurant was actually quite large, its size disguised by the fact that instead of massive dining rooms, it contained numerous tiny dining rooms connected by a maze of hallways.  Soon after we arrived the majority of the non-singers had found their way to the same restaurant, and the staff seeing that we obviously knew each other, seated us all in the same area.  Creating a virtual party room.

Sidebar: Photos of our group getting ready for tour:

Our choir spent most of the summer of 2001 preparing for the concert tour:A pilgrimage tour to Italy.  On the home front, at the same time, our home cathedral was undergoing a massive restoration and renovation project.  Therefore our rehearsal sessions were held at St. John's the Evangelist church  Here are a couple photos from a rehearsal session.

After taking drink orders, the antipasto was served.  This was an enormous appetizer for the whole table.  Each person was given a plate, and bowls of numerous ingredients were passed around the table, family style, and unlimited.  So unlimited that most folks filled up on the antipasto and did not order pizza. I mean with Mozzarella Balls, Ricotta Cheese, ham, salami, meatballs, eggplant, peppers, spinach quiche, tomatoes on melba toast, foccacia bread and probably some stuff I forgot, most folks were stuffed.  Cost of the appetizer spread, 20,000: ($10) per person. I then ordered a personal size pizza.  I had ordered a simple pizza, just cheese and tomato, for 10,000L ($5), what they brought was what we would call a medium size pizza.  It was huge, with a paper-thin soft crust.  Here the Italian waiter schooled me, the American, in the REAL way to eat pizza. The super thin soft crust is meant to be folded, after you fold it the slices wind up looking not unlike a quesadilla.  It was much different from the pizza I had in Assisi, but now I can say I had real Roman Pizza.  Considering I had a pizza, the appetizer spread, and a large bottle of beer, I found the meal to be quite reasonable at $20. But what is more priceless than anything is how much fun and laughter we had throughout the meal.  We then took the time to use the restaurant's facilities before returning to the church.   By the time we arrived the doors had been opened for the concert.  We were delighted to find reserved seats for us.   This is the number one concert, the one that they had been practicing for months for.  The concert I could hear in my sleep by now.  Finally being performed for real. Later we would learn that for those two hours we had been having dinner the choir had one final dress rehearsal.

            Due to the weather the attendance was less than the 3,000-5,000 that had been predicted, but the crowd was still of a nice size.   The choir performed wonderfully, and flawlessly.  The director had hired a professional videographer to both video and audio record the concert.  Our professional photographer was there was well.  I must say the concert was well received.  After the concert we took some more time to look about the church then we returned to the bus.  Some decided to opt for taxis, but this time Mom joined the group of us who opted for the bus.  It seemed a much shorter walk back to the bus.  Except there was no bus, there was a slight delay spent looking at the local buildings while the bus arrived.  We were then taken back to our hotel, as always numerous things about Rome were mentioned most of which I forgot.  We did note the church that had been built out of the remains from former buildings.  A version of recycling and cutting costs. Once back at the hotel, we got ready for bed.  Catch you tomorrow!

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