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May 19, 2015
Our second day in Rome started with a 6:30 am jog from our AirBnB apartment in Trastevere to the Pantheon. We were overwhelmed by the number of tourists we encountered on our first day in beautiful Rome, so we thought we'd try to see a site or two bright and early when we rightly assumed that everyone else would be sleeping. ;)
We think an early morning walk or jog is the best way to see the city! There's little traffic and even fewer tourists. We had both the Pantheon and Piazza Navona pretty much to ourselves! The only downside of course is that it was too early to go inside the Pantheon.
We spent the rest of the day visiting the Colosseum and Vatican. We highly recommend purchasing your tickets online! That way you can avoid long lines, especially at the Colosseum. For the Vatican City Museum, you can purchase a voucher online and exchange it for a ticket at the Museum.
To our dismay both the Colosseum and Forum were closed - without prior notification - until 11:30 am due to an official government-sponsored event. Fortunately, much of the Forum is visible from the public sidewalks. In addition, there are several other spectacular monuments all within walking distance of the Colosseum and Forum including Trajan's Column and the Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument. We also took this opportunity to walk back to the Pantheon and go inside.
The Vatican City Museum is a treasure trove of art! Because of our delays getting into the Colosseum, we sadly had to rush through the Museum. But what we saw was breathtaking! It was also amazing to see the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in-person!
From the Museum, it's a short five or so minute walk to the Vatican City where we headed straight to St. Peter's Basilica. We arrived around 5:15 pm, and the light inside the Basilica was stunning! We paid 7 Euro per person to take the elevator + 320 steps to the Dome. The alternative is to pay 5 Euro per person to ascend completely on foot via 551 steps. The 360-degree views of Rome from the Dome are gorgeous!
We enjoyed a simple pasta dinner followed by our daily serving of gelato! We ended the day with a walk along the Tiber River back to our place in Trastevere. The monuments and bridges around the river are beautifully lit up at night!
As always, many thanks for watching!!
MUSIC:
Electro Light by The Edge featuring Kathryn MacLean
https://soundcloud.com/nocopyrightsounds/electro-light-ft-kathryn-maclean-the-edge-ncs-release
Aware by Kontinuum
https://soundcloud.com/nocopyrightsounds/kontinuum-aware-ncs-release
The Nameless by Elliot Berger
https://soundcloud.com/nocopyrightsounds/elliot-berger-the-nameless-ncs-release
