Our second full day in Rome started with a tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. We spent 4 hours learning about art, history and culture related to the Vatican. Once again, I was amazed and inspired by the things we saw and learned. After our tour, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking to our hotel with many stops on the way. On Sunday morning, we spent an hour walking around one last time before we left for the airport. It was lovely morning and pretty quiet for Rome! I think my favorite thing about Rome was simply walking around and seeing all the piazzas, fountains, buildings and people. I loved walking down a narrow street and at the end having it open up onto a beautiful piazza filled with people talking, eating, playing or resting. I think every city needs more piazzas!
We took the subway to the Vatican. It was a fun adventure!
We are heading into the museum. We skipped the huge line because we bought our tickets online beforehand. Whew!
Our guide Cecilia has a Master’s in Art History and shared with us so many interesting things about the paintings on the Sistine Chapel as well as the other art we saw.
The statue, dating back to ancient Rome was an inspiration to Michelangelo. You can see similarities in the face of this statue with the face of Jesus that Michelangelo painted in the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel.
A painting by Raphael in the museum. We visited 4 rooms adorned with paintings from Raphael or his students. The Raphael rooms used to be living quarters for the pope.
St. Peter’s Basilica, named so because it is believed to be the burial site of St. Peter, apostle of Jesus and first bishop of Rome. Michelangelo designed the dome but did not live to see it finished. It is one of the biggest churches in the world – truly an amazing structure.
Inside the Basilica. It was started in 1506 and completed in 1626. It is phenomenal. Apparently there is mass everyday but I’m not sure where or how since there are hundreds of tourists and not many pews!
Inside, the church is mostly marble and stone, with many beautiful statues. There is not much for colorful artwork but the pictures that are there (like this one) are not paintings but rather made of tile so that they will last for as long as the rest of the church.
A view of St. Peter’s as we crossed the Tiber River.
We stopped at Piazza Navona and enjoyed a snack, the fountains, people watching and all the artists displaying their work.
Of course, we had to stop and get gelato (3 days in a row, Lily was happy to announce). We are on Via del Corso, one of the busiest streets with many shopping opportunities!
Sure looks good!
Lily is trying out a drinking fountain again, this time drinking directly from it rather than filling a water bottle. It’s harder to stay dry than it looks (at least for Lily)!
Our Sunday morning walk. I loved the orange trees lining the streets. And the details in the buildings. Every street we walked down had something beautiful to look at, and according to Sylvia, at least 3 churches!
Triton Fountain in the Piazza Barberini.
A view of the city from Villa Borghese Park.
Our hotel, Hotel Oceania, is located on the 3rd floor of this building. Among other things in this building are a Korean Methodist Church and another hotel on the 4th floor.
The “scary” elevator in our hotel that turned out to be pretty fun and not so scary after all.
We love Rome!
SylLy Acres 
February 21, 2014 at 4:32 pm
Wow, it’s almost like i’ve been there – except now I want to go and drink out of that water fountain! 🙂
Maybe Lily could show me how.
February 22, 2014 at 7:52 pm
She could also show you the best places for gelato. Except that she never met a gelato she didn’t like, so she’d say they were all good!
March 9, 2014 at 1:29 pm
OK. My turn to catch up on your blog news. Great pictures and quick easy captions! It seems so sunny in Malta and Rome. Rainy season has hit Taiwan recently so skies are grey on a regular basis. One question and one comment. Comment: I think my favorite picture of the Roma collection is the orange trees with heads on the wall above them that look as if they’re going to bite one right off the tree! Question: Are there any Roma in Roma? Or for that matter, Malta? How are, for lack of a better term, Gypsies, seen and treated in your part of Europe?
March 9, 2014 at 7:47 pm
Hi Greg! It has been unseasonably warm this winter in Malta and sunny, too. This is the rainy season and we saw lots of rain today, but nearly every day it has been sunny. Even when it rains, the sun comes out for a little bit. It’s so nice, I must say! Interestingly, several Maltese have commented on the warm winter and how global climate change has contributed to this unusual weather. It’s so interesting to see how issues important to me are also important to others around the world! I just came across a permaculture center here, too that looks so cool with composting workshops, etc.
As far as Gypsies here or Rome, I haven’t heard anything about that group in particular. (Our concierge in Rome, however did tell us he was from ROME-ania – and emphasized it just like that. He was so funny!) The biggest issue is all the immigrants coming from Africa and some Middle East countries. There is quite an influx of refugees seeking asylum, and so many come through Malta because of the island’s location. They are kept in detention centers (our students are doing some English tutoring at one of the centers), sometimes for years, while the govt’ tries to figure out what to do with them. I’m learning more about this so I’ll be able to fill you in more soon. Thanks for writing!