Day 8 - Vatican and Sightseeing

Ali finally woke up with no fever!! There was still the dizziness and blocked nose, ears etc - but at least there was PROGRESS!!

We all hopped onto the metro to make our way towards the Vatican. We were planning on seeing St Peter’s Basilica and we didn’t want to wait in huge queues so we tried to get an early start.

There are some many monks and nuns around Rome! They are everywhere!

After hoping off the metro, we started the walk to the church - or at least we thought we did. Turns out we were going in the wrong direction. 15 minutes later we had to turn around and walk back in the opposite direction.

Before long, we were in part of Vatican City. The guards here have the most random uniforms - they look like jokers/clowns. It seems like the most impractical uniform to wear if there was a real threat.

We went through the security checks and metal detectors are made our way inside the church. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy yet.

After looking around, we then made the walk to Castel Sant’Angelo.

This castle was used as a mausoleum, and also a fortress. We went through the castle and had a look but it was so hot we couldn’t concentrate for long! The last photo is the view of the city from the castle.

We then walked to find the Pantheon. On the way there we stopped in at a little restaurant for lunch. It had such cute little paintings on the walls of Roman sites! Auke had pizza and Ali and the girls had pasta.

We then carried on in the heat. On the way we came across beautiful gardens and a fountain.

Finally we made it to the Pantheon! This church used to be a Roman temple. It was built back in 126AD. It has giant columns in the front, and inside is a big circular dome in the ceiling. It is a pretty stunning building!

Our next stop was The Altar of The Fatherland - also known as the wedding cake because apparently no body likes it. Romans apparently hate white marble and are therefore ashamed of the building (according to Ali’s tour guide from the previous day). There were about a million stairs here and we had the pram so Ali stayed half way up with Titus while Auke and the girls climbed to the top. It was piping hot!!

When we made it to the top we had a beautiful view of the city. We eventually left to make our way back down to where Ali and Titus were, but the guard told us we couldn't go back down that way. So all up we went 196 steps to get to the top, then about 90 steps down until we got told off, so we had to go back up the 90 steps we had just climbed down, then we had to go down on the inside which was the way out which was another 196 steps. Then we had to go back up another 106 steps to get back to Ali and Titus, and then back down the 106 steps. In the mean time, Ali was getting told off by security for sitting on the steps too long waiting for us because it is forbidden to sit on the steps.

After this we walked back to the Colosseum as this was the closest metro stop. By this stage Mila was nearly in tears because we had done so much walking and in such incredible heat!

We caught the metro back to our house. Auke went to the shop and did some groceries and we had watermelon, peach and mango for dinner.

A few things to note about Rome:

They have the most annoying sounding ambulances in the world - if you haven’t heard them, google it. It sucks. And they go All. Day. Long.

Their water is weird! It’s full of calcium which apparently means very few Romans suffer from osteoporosis. However - it also means you have major white floaties in all your glasses of water which leaves a chalky texture in your mouth! Yuck!

While Rome may be a big city, I wouldn't necessarily say it’s dirty. It is no dirtier than Wellington or Auckland, and there are actually minimal homeless people that we saw.

The brand of their yoghurt is Mila! Much to Mila’s delight!!