Or, that time I tried to burn down our hotel.
Our first day in Rome was a HOT one. We sweated our way through the Vatican, which shouldn’t have been a surprise given that the day started off with a bang. Well, actually it was more like a burst of smoke and then shooting flames.
Don’t worry – no one was injured. My husband had gotten our new voltage converter all set up and I was happily blow drying my hair when suddenly I smelled smoke. I turned the dryer off and held it away from my head (thank goodness) as it suddenly emitted flames instead of hot air! I yelped and dropped it on the floor (which was thankfully tile and not carpet). Jon lunged forward, picked it up as it spewed more flames out the front and tossed it onto our balcony.
We stood there wheezing with relief laughter and fanning the acrid smoke out of our eyes. We didn’t burn anything in the hotel room, didn’t get hurt, didn’t even set off the smoke alarms. The only real bummer – it was a brand new blow dryer.
Turns out my sweet husband has never used a voltage converter before and set it up incorrectly, so it was pumping way too much voltage into the blow dryer. Thus – fire storm. Sometimes you learn a lesson the hard way. This was definitely one of those times. He pulled out the instructions, solved the issue, and the adapter worked great for the rest of the trip. The blow dryer, however, had a cool down on the balcony and then went directly into a Roman trashcan. Crisis averted, we climbed into a taxi and sped off to meet our tour group at the Vatican.
This, our first day in Rome, was sunny and beautiful. We checked in with our tour provider and then popped down to the corner Bar for a little Roman breakfast. One of my favorite things about Rome was breakfast. I love that you stop at whatever little Bar is on the way to wherever you are going to grab a quick coffee and pastry. I don’t drink coffee, but the rest of the adults in my group do, so they sipped on hot cappuccini and I indulged in my 2 new favorite things – maritozzo and cornetto con pistachio crema. In English, sweet Italian brioche with whipped cream and croissants with pistachio cream filling. I love pastries anyway, but these 2 are game changers. I not only brought home a jar of pistachio cream, I also have been scouring the Internet for the best maritozzi recipe.
Our bellies full of caffeine and sugar, we returned to the tour location and met up with our guide, who handed out listening devices and led us to the Vatican entrance for tour groups. I did a lot of research before our trip and knew that visiting the Vatican in June would mean really big crowds. Just in case you are wondering if that is true, let me assure you that it is.
From the moment we entered the Vatican, we were crammed into a sea of people. If it wasn’t for the fact that all the tour guides carry metal poles with flags at the top, you would never be able to stay anywhere near your tour guide. Even with the flags – it was extremely difficult. This was my one major frustration with the Vatican. I was wrangling our 11 year old, who was hot, tired and not really interested in anything we were looking at, so I was consistently in the back of our tour group. With so many people packed into the hallways, I was typically 20-50 feet behind our tour guide. While she was talking constantly through the tour, I was never close enough to see what she was talking about. The earpiece ended up just being frustrating and definitely gave me sensory overload. Peanut (our 11 year old) agreed and said all it did was give her a headache, which added to the fact that it was hot & crowded, did not leave a lot of room for learning.
The Vatican Museum has some really amazing pieces and I especially enjoyed the tapestry room (bonus points for being a cooler room). The Sistine Chapel was stunning. It is much smaller than I pictured it being, but standing under it was a very moving experience. The Chapel is silent – which means the guards do their best to silence all chatter. I was grateful to be able to stand there and enjoy the ceiling without the interference of noise. Also, it was by far the coolest space temperature wise, so it was a lovely, quiet, cool respite from the rest of the hot, loud, bustling tour.
Our final stop on the tour was St Peter’s Basilica. Absolutely the most ornate, grandiose space I have ever been to! Gold everywhere, lots of statues, everything ornately carved and sparkling. My Dad leaned over as we were walking toward the altar and said “How would you like to be the guy that has to dust THIS ceiling??” Being able to view Michaelangelo’s Pieta was the highlight for me.
Our morning tour concluded, we set off to find lunch. We were starving . . . and hot . . . and tired . . . A state which we hold fully responsible for our decision to get pulled into a restaurant that was clearly a huge tourist trap. Note to travelers – if the restaurant has to put a person out front to try and lure you in, walk away. We let them lure us with their air conditioning and friendly demeanor and then we spent WAY TOO MUCH money for lunch. Honestly, it ended up being $50 per person. It was good, but it certainly wasn’t $50 per person good in a city where you can easily spend $15 on a truly amazing meal.
Lesson learned, we hopped into a cab and headed back to our hotel for our afternoon riposo (the Italian equivalent of siesta). A nice nap in the cool air conditioning felt like magic!
All in all, the Vatican was beautiful and we are glad we went. That said, the crowds are stifling and the heat made it a very long, arduous morning. Would we do it again? Maybe. Definitely without kids. Definitely at a cooler time of the year. We would also take the advice we saw too late and opt for the evening tour. By that time of day, we are told that most people are off having dinner, so the tours are less crowded. Finally, we would buy skip the line tickets and do it on our own. Listening on the static filled listening devices was frustrating and took away from the experience. I would much rather wander and enjoy the freedom to stop and ponder whatever catches my eye rather than being pulled through in order to see what the tour guide deems as most interesting.
That said, there were some truly amazing moments in the midst of all the chaos, and I wouldn’t give them back, even in exchange for air conditioning and quiet. Sometimes, you have to endure the heat and the crowd and the monotony of life in order to have the opportunity to stand in awe and look up at the spark of creation. Adam reaches out his finger towards God, God reaches back towards Adam. Their fingers don’t touch, but the air between them is filled with electricity. It’s an electricity you can feel if you choose to. I was hot and tired . . . and I chose to. It was truly amazing.
Ciao for now!
B
