Rome (In a Time of Death)

As I'm sure you're aware, Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, the 21st of April. 2025 is also a Jubilee Year, or Holy Year, which happens once every twenty-five years and encourages millions of people to embark on pilgrimages to Rome. In addition, we weren't able to get tickets to certain things because they sold out before we planned the trip, as I've said in previous posts. These factors completely disrupted our Rome itinerary and our experience. I would go back to Rome as a day trip within another larger trip to Italy just to see the things we missed, but I don't think I would ever go back to Rome specifically.

Continuing from the Florence post, we arrived in Rome around 8:30 a.m. the next morning and stored our luggage at the station, which was more expensive than an exterior storage location but also more secure. We had breakfast at a cute café with very nice service. My iced coffee and Nutella croissant were delicious. Then we picked up our Rome Passes at one of those little tourist information centers that I've never thought seemed necessary. The Rome Pass cost about 50€ and got us into two things free and more at a discounted price; it also gave free access to public transportation. The idea was that it would pay for itself and then some, but the Rome leg of our trip was so disrupted, I'm unconvinced it actually did.

We happened to pass a church, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, that I'd learned about in art history. It was one of the first Baroque churches ever designed, with it's dramatic curvature and asymmetrical façade. We popped inside momentarily. We also visited the St. Ignatius of Loyola Church, which has a beautifully decorated ceiling. There's a mirror in the center aisle that illuminates the ceiling and magnifies it so you can see it better and get a good picture. Inconsiderate Instagrammers unfortunately made the line too long to stand in.

The Pantheon was next because it was close and we thought we could use the Rome Pass. I'd bought us discounted Colosseum tickets for Saturday instead of free ones, as we'd planned to use the Rome Pass for several other things before Saturday that ended up needing to be moved or scrapped. For example, we hadn't gotten tickets to the Galleria Borghese, another art museum, because they'd sold out; we had planned to wait in line, but it turned out there wasn't a ticket office at all, and it was mandatory to get tickets ahead of time online. So I was concerned about getting two uses of the Rome Pass in before Saturday morning. The Rome Pass didn't end up applying at the Pantheon, but we got 2€ entry with our student visas. The line thankfully wasn't too long, thought it was still crowded. Once a Roman temple, the Pantheon has been a Catholic church since 609 A.D. Its large concrete dome was one of Brunelleschi's inspirations for the dome of the Duomo of Florence. The Pantheon houses the tomb of the painter Raphael.

Next, we visited the Galleria Nazionali di Arte Antica. Entry was free with the Rome Pass but would have been 2€ again with our visas. There was a Caravaggio exhibit going on, but the entry was separate and the tickets had sold out for the entire year far in advance. This was unfortunate because Allison and I both love Caravaggio, and all but one of his works in the regular museum had been moved to the special exhibit.

For lunch, we ended up at Hard Rock Cafe, ironically. I'd never been there, we were passing it so it was convenient, and I think we were all ready for the familiarity of chicken tenders and fries. Also, with the Rome Pass, there was a 10% discount for some reason. Despite not being able to go to the Galleria Borghese, we were still able to walk through the connected park a little bit. We'd thought it was a fifteen minute bus back to the train station to pick up our luggage by 3:00 p.m. But it turned out the bus wouldn't come in time. Our entire stay in Rome, the buses were obnoxiously irregular, late, and detoured, of course because of the pope. We needed to speed walk the thirty minutes back to the station under the hot sun of the Italian afternoon. Vanessa and I forged ahead, getting in line with three minutes to spare, and the others caught up as we got our bags. Then it was a forty minute bus ride to the Airbnb. Our Airbnb host met us at the door and gave an in-depth, if not a bit overkill, tour of the updated, two-bedroom apartment. There was finally an espresso machine, with grounds provided! (The other Airbnbs had had some form of Italian coffee maker, but the usage hadn't been clear, and the Florence apartment hadn't provided any coffee.) I was also able to do laundry, though the cycle was two hours and twenty minutes long for no apparent reason.

The next day, we slept in, and I was able to get some work done. We tried to see St. Peter's Basilica that afternoon. Our Vatican tickets for Saturday were cancelled and refunded because of the funeral, so we wouldn't be able to see the museum or the Sistine Chapel. For those of you wondering, it was impossible to buy new tickets or reschedule, as we'd been lucky to get the Saturday tickets at all; in hindsight, I really wish we'd planned our activities farther in advance, rather than waiting until only two or three weeks before the trip. The pope's body was lying in state, so we knew there would be a line for that, but we hoped to at least be able to see the inside of the church, even if we didn't wait to see the body. We didn't even manage to make it inside St. Peter's Square. There was a bag check several streets behind the square, and we caught up to the crowd before we got to the colonnade encircling the square. We were able to walk alongside the exterior of the colonnade and get a slightly closer look at the Basilica from the outside.

We made it to about the red rectangle. The entire area between that rectangle and the Basilica itself was stuffed with people, and there were still people behind us. You can click on the photo to expand it.

Afterward, we visited the Capitoline Museum, which is the oldest public museum in the world. It houses some art and various artifacts from ancient Rome. The famous statue of Lupa, the wolf who suckled the mythical founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, was there.

The next morning, we walked thirty minutes to the Colosseum. Our tickets were for 8:30 a.m., but you're supposed to arrive fifteen minutes early. There were no employees around at 8:15, and people were lined up outside the entrance, though no one knew which line was which. The lines eventually moved, and we passed several security and ticket check points. Our tickets were for the first and second floors, without access to the attic, basement, or special exhibits, as that was considerably more expensive and not covered by the Rome Pass. It was interesting to see how old and crumbling the Colosseum was, but there were predictably a lot of people, so it was somewhat difficult to get a spot at the railing to see into the arena. We got into the Roman Forum next with the same tickets. I didn't know what I expected the Forum to be; I suppose just another building, smaller than the Colosseum. It ended up being the entire valley between three of Rome's hills. In Antiquity, it was used for a variety of social, religious, political, and commercial reasons. Some of the preserved sights include the Antonius and Faustina Temple, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Arch of Titus, and much more. The weather was gorgeous, and flowers bloomed between the ruins. We heard the bells of the pope's funeral ring in the distance. We briefly climbed up to the Palatine Hill, another part of the same general area. It was hot, and we were tired by then, so we went in search of lunch. I had a pistachio cream and burrata ravioli dish, which was very good but could have used some extra sharpness, such as lemon juice. I also had tiramisu; it was very yellow and pudding-like. We turned in early again and watched some of The Office, available on Netflix in Europe.

By 7:30 a.m. the next morning, we were at the famous Trevi fountain. That early, there were people around, but you could still find a spot to stand at the railing or in front of the clear pool to take pictures or admire the sculptures. We saw the Spanish Steps next. They're just a staircase leading to a church, but they were covered in pink and white flowers and very beautiful. After those early morning activities were done, we were at an impasse. The Picasso exhibit Regan wanted to see didn't open until 10:00. The Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, which houses three of the pope's favorite Caravaggios didn't open until noon, after Mass. We decided to try to get into St. Peter's Basilica again by attending 9:00 a.m. Mass, as there were Masses scheduled the entire day, without enough time in between to get in just to sightsee. As we approached, it became clear everyone on the progressively more crowded sidewalk had the same idea. Once again, we only made it to the buildings just before the colonnade. We gave up the dream of seeing the inside and Michelangelo's Pietà and went to a café for focaccia. Italian focaccia is very thin and crunchy, different from the thick, oily bread we're used to. I prefer the American version, but the Italian was still good. We took advantage of the break to research the uniformed scout and pilgrim groups we'd been seeing. They seemed to belong to the Italian Scout Federation and other similar international organizations. Many of the groups that weren't Italian seemed to be from Spain and Latin America.

We went to the Picasso exhibit. Picasso isn't my favorite, but it was interesting to learn more about his life and art. He was Spanish but spent most of his life in France; his skill was recognized and appreciated practically everywhere but in France, where he was an outsider until practically (but not quite) his death. I still don't like his work, but I can see how his mastery of color, composition, and paint application, as well as his ability to play with perspective and the human body, have earned him such renown.

The Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo didn't actually open until 2:30, so we had lunch and began a wild goose chase through what seemed to be every tourist gift shop in Rome to find a very specific "I ♡ Italia" t-shirt that Regan and Vanessa wanted. There were a lot of "I ♡ Roma" shirts, but not many "I ♡ Italia." One shop owner even said, "Italia" isn't a symbol of Rome, despite Rome being the capital of Italy. I suppose Rome as its own entity is much older and more specific than Italy as a whole. At 2:15, we got into a good place in line for the Basilica, which opened ten minutes late. The Italian are even less aware of time than the French. We were able to see the three Caravaggios despite the crowd just trying to take pictures. We got gelato and found the Italia shirts just before it started to rain. Then it was back to the Airbnb for more of The Office.