Our Tuesday in Rome started with breakfast from the nearest McDonald’s. Unlike the United States, where diners can choose from an enticing menu of biscuit sandwiches, McMuffins, and McGriddles, most Italian breakfast options are of the sweet variety. I skipped over the various croissants, muffins, and pancakes in favor of their only breakfast sandwich which had bacon, egg, and cheese.
We were out the door just after 8:30 to make the 25-minute walk to the Colosseum, where we kicked off a 3-hour walking tour that included a visit to the Colosseum including its arena floor, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. Our tour guide was impressive, and the in-ear narration really gave more depth to our visit. It was also helpful being with a tour guide to navigate the sights, helping us walk to the quickest entry lines and identify the best photo spots.
We looked stylish, and touristy, with our headsets. But they were quite practical, making it easy to hear our tour guide’s commentary.
The arena floor offered a different vantage point of the Coliseum vs. our previous visit.
The Roman Forum was incredibly impressive.
After lunch, we returned to the Colosseum briefly to capture some daytime photos to complement the ones we’d taken the night before. We then made the trek to L’Archetto, a spot where Amanda and I had eaten pizza 18 years earlier. We struggled a bit to communicate our order but had an enjoyable lunch experience including a cheese pizza for Noah that he rated 10/10.
There was a lot of walking to do between L’Archetto and Vatican City, where we’d booked an afternoon tour of the Vatican Museums that promised ‘extra time’ in a comparatively-empty Sistine Chapel. I identified a tiramisu spot called Two Sizes to break up the trip. It had a long line and was tasty enough but not as fresh or memorable as the spot from Venice.
Amanda liked her ham and mushroom pizza.
The Two Sizes tiramisu didn’t quite live up to the hype (aka Google rating.)
Like some of the other tourist spots we visited, Vatican City seemed way busier than it had on our previous Italy trip. We couldn’t actually get into the city and St. Peter’s Square without going through the long security line. We snapped a photo of Noah in front of the city then wandered around the adjacent Rome neighborhood until it was time to line up for our Vatican Museums tour.
We felt fortunate to have pre-booked tickets for a guided tour as we flew by people who were waiting for entry into the Museum. Like the earlier Colosseum tour, we had in-ear narration as we made our way through rooms filled with statues, paintings, and other famous relics from the past. Our tour guide was clearly passionate about the museum, its displays, and our tours, but the level of detail offered was a bit beyond my level of interest.
The museum tour lasted a full two hours until we had the opportunity to see the Sistine Chapel without the typical crowds. As we got closer to the Sistine Chapel, we had more and more ‘unofficial’ tour groups and individuals racing by us to get to the chapel before it closed for the day. Our tour guide was clearly bothered by this, as they weren’t appreciating any of the other art, and it was nice that our visit to Sistine Chapel didn’t include the chaos of a large crowd. We had a full 30 minutes with two other tour groups, including some detailed commentary from our guide and downtime to walk around and peruse the room ourselves.
A look at the crowds in some of the museum rooms, en route to Sistine Chapel.
This was our last photo to be taken inside the Vatican Museums, as no photos are allowed within Sistine Chapel.
Also included with our tour was a ‘happy hour’ within the pinecone courtyard of the museum. The experience included charcuterie, cold pasta salads, an assortment of warmed fried treats, and drinks. We’d already paid for it, so we made it our supper, but it was a little less exciting than trying something local and unique to Rome.
The spread at the Vatican Happy Hour.
The namesake of the courtyard.
On our walk from Vatican City, Amanda was surprised and sobered to look down and find a ‘Stolperstein’ in the middle of Rome. Wikipedia defines these as ten-centimeter concrete cubes with a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. It literally means ‘stumbling stone’ and metaphorically ‘stumbling block.’ More than 75,000 have been installed across Europe outside of the last known residences of Holocaust victims, including the two we photographed.
We took our first and only ride on Rome’s Metro subway system, which was super-easy and saved us at least 30 minutes of walking. I dropped Amanda and Noah off at our apartment and ran to the train station’s underground mall to find some treats to bring back to the States and pick up a few Macarons to celebrate Amanda’s birthday!
Single tickets took just a minute to buy from a machine and were only €1.50 each.
