Five Days in the Eternal City of Rome (Day 4)

Seeing that this was my first vacation in Italy, Bridget said I should allocate a day to visit the Vatican while we were in Rome.

We started our day with an early lunch at Bonci Pizzarium. After figuring out the confusing queue system and joining the queue correctly on our second attempt, we eventually got our food and ate outside the shop (read this postcard to see what we thought of the pizzas).

After lunch, we made the 10-minute walk to the Vatican. With enough exhibits to embarrass most other European collections, there’s no way to see everything in the Vatican Museums in a day. Beginning in 1503 as Pope Julius II’s collection of ancient sculptures, the collection has continued to grow over the years. Today, it consists of work by Michelangelo and Raphael, an abundance of art, artefacts and sculptures, and even a piece of the moon which was donated by Nixon. Because of its sheer scale, visitors are often forewarned of experiencing museum fatigue even before they’ve reached their intended exhibit.

With the advanced online booking that Bridget made to secure our tickets into the museum (waking up at six in the morning when the tickets for the day we wanted to visit were available for purchase), we were able to skip the line of visitors that snaked around the perimeter of the Vatican Museums and enter without any fuss or waiting under the mid-day sun. Inside, the galleries and rooms were just as crowded. We had to be patient as we moved through the displays.

The Sistine Chapel and Raphael Rooms were recommended places to see for first-time visitors, so we set our sights on those two when we began our self-guided tour. Photography and videography are not allowed in the Sistine Chapel, so I have no keepsakes from that visit apart from vague memories nearly a year on from our visit of the museum staff within the chapel repeatedly reminding people to put their cameras away and keep their voices down.

If it hadn’t occurred to me from all the travel planning and research, the immense and incomprehensible scale of the venue certainly hit home when we started walking through the exhibits. Galleries and museums never interested me before, and the tourist crowds that we walked alongside—or at times, ducking from to avoid getting struck by their selfie sticks—started to get on my nerves. I’ve never had a good time being in an overly crowded venue where people are constantly in my personal space, and this museum visit only reminded me of that. Moving from one room to the next within the museums was slow and tiring, and in the end we decided to give the Raphael Rooms a miss.

That said, my personal dislikes are irrelevant to the grandiosity of the exhibits and galleries. These incredible examples of creativity, skill, and talent by artists in centuries past, who often spent years working on just one canvas or sculpture, was a reminder of the dedication and patience that was necessary to create something special.

This relatively brief visit to the Vatican had more than satiated my tiny appetite for jostling among crowds, so we headed out of the Vatican altogether and returned to the less chaotic streets of Rome.

At this point, I was in desperate need of a good cup of coffee. Google Maps suggested a specialty coffee shop nearby called Pergamino Caffè, so we made a beeline for an iced latte and to rest our tired feet.

As we were finishing our coffee, Bridget spotted passers-by carrying bubble tea in their hands. A second beverage became necessary.

Practically a street down from Pergamino Caffè was The One Bubble Tea, which gave her a lot more satisfaction than the iced latte we just had. Here’s proof.

Mission accomplished

Now that we were sufficiently rehydrated, I faithfully accompanied Bridget to the Via dei Condotti, where she would splash a bit of cash. As a reward for my patience and endurance, we got another helping of gelato from the nearby La Strega Nocciola, which we had visited on our first day in Rome.

This was one of the rare moments on our vacation when we decided to walk along the streets of Rome and pick a restaurant to dine at. It didn’t take very long, as we settled on Le Grotte along Via della Vite, which offered al fresco dining in a nice setting. After an afternoon of sweet drinks and gelato, we decided to have a light dinner. I had the spaghettone alle vongole Veraci while Bridget got the tonnarelli ai gamberi rossi e pecorino.

When the basics are done well, a good pasta dish is quite easily within reach; my vongole pasta had a nice balance of sweetness between the clams and white wine. I loved its simplicity.

Bridget’s prawn pasta with its creamy cheese sauce was more savoury but still thoroughly enjoyable.

After settling the check, we walked back to our hotel with the naive optimism that it would burn off the calories we had consumed between our meals today. As we walked in the cool Roman evening, we reminisced about some of our favourite moments in Italy but despite the recollections, I was sure that we would have one of our best meals on our last (full) day in Rome.