The Vatican

I thought my visit to the Vatican was deserving of a proper title rather than one of my poor excuses for a witty joke. I took a taxi from my apartment in Trastevere that dropped me off at the end of Via della Conciliazione. Stepping out of the cab, I was looking directly down the street to St. Peter's Basilica.

As with the Colosseum, my walk toward the square was interrupted multiple times by people trying to sell me tours. At the time, that was not something I really wanted. But the more they pestered, the more I began to think it might be better than trying to see everything with what little research I had actually done on the place. I decided to take one of these very aggressive hawkers up on their offer, and immediately began regretting it. She led me back out of the square, down a side street, out of the walls of The Vatican, and into a small office that was about the size of a public bathroom. It felt to me like something I could come back to tomorrow and there'd be no sign it ever existed. I felt even more wary when they said they only accepted cash, and that one of their guys could walk me to an ATM. Everything up to this point had my brain screaming to bail. But for whatever reason, I though "nah let's see this through."

In the end, it actually paid off pretty well. I and the rest of the people who should have had better judgement were directed to a legitimate guide who spoke English. And he was entertaining in the way you would expect someone who spends all day showing tourists the same thing over and over again. Plenty of pop culture references and even a joke about Chris Brown's apparent lust of lady-beating. I enjoyed the humor, as well as the wealth of information he provided.

The tour ended directly in front of the entrance to St. Peter's Basilica, directly under the balcony where the Pope would make speeches. Since I am not important enough to be given a speech, the balcony was empty, but the inside of the basilica was not. From here, I'll let the images speak for themselves, even though they hardly do justice to the scale and ambiance of a place like this.

After basking in the beauty of the interior, I wanted to see more. It was time to climb the Cupola. Are you ready for a Padraig Dow Traveler Pro Tip? A PDTPT, if you will? When it comes to climbing to the top of the dome at St. Peter's, there are two options. You can either climb the stairs all the way to the top (€6), or you can take the elevator (€8). But don't be fooled. The elevator option will take you from the ground floor to the base of the dome, but you will still need to climb the stairs from there to the top. I am not exactly in Olympian shape, and just climbing the dome itself is quite challenging. I would not recommend it for anyone who has problems with tight spaces, as many of the stairways are very narrow, as are the multiple spiral staircases that seem to go on forever with room for only one person at a time. For me, it was a lot of work. But the pay off was excellent.

After climbing down and taking one more look inside the basilica itself, I headed out. I grabbed a bite to eat at an Italian staple, McDonald's, then took a taxi back to Trastevere.