Day 2 in Rome: Express Visit at the Vatican and More

By this point my feet are pretty much shot.  I have at least one blister and everything is soar.  This is mainly because I refuse to wear sneakers with a sun dress, and refuse to wear jeans when it is so hot out.  I am not good with heat, Justin will tell you. I've been wearing mostly my Tom's with a mix of sandals in the evening for dinner.  I'm making it work but my feet may fall off before I get home. 

We woke up early to head to the Vatican.  We were sort of "lazy" about this whole Italy trip and planned pretty much nothing in advance.  We wanted to just BE in Italy, eat, hang out and drink wine.  So this means, we get to wait in line.  We got in line for tickets at the Vatican a good half hour before it opened and we waited probably about an hour, which really isn't too bad.  We had a route planned out of what we wanted to see, and pretty much bee-lined for those areas.  The crowds were insane; I mean trying to move quickly through the Vatican museum is nearly impossible simply because of all the people. 

When I was here 10 years ago, I was completely spoiled.  One of my art history classes was a class on Michelangelo that was taught by one of the top Michelangelo scholars in the world.  He took us on several tours, one of which was through the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.  We were given access to the museum before it opened so there was pretty much no one but us inside.  We didn't spend time seeing everything, but did a good general sweep and focused on a few important pieces.  We ended our tour that time in the Sistine Chapel, and my final project for the class was to give a presentation on the Last Judgment, which is Michelangelo's fresco on the wall behind the altar.  This meant that I stood alone in front of the altar, two security guards off to one side, my professor on the other and my twelve or so classmates LAYING ON THE FLOOR looking up at the ceiling.  That was it. Needless to say, I found it difficult to focus on the presentation I was giving.  It was definitely a moment I will never forget.

While this time we had to wait in line and see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel like the normal crowd, it was still all wonderful to see.  The ceiling frescos will never cease to amaze me.  We managed to see what we needed to see in about an hour and a half, though this did not include the inside of St. Peter's.  We had a lunch date to get to at noon, so when we were done at the Museum we headed over to meet my BFF's little sister, Tory (who is studying in Rome) at a pizza place that Justin wanted to try. 

Pizzarium is about a 10 minute walk from the Vatican.  It's a thicker style pizza topped with all sorts of funky things.  It's not a sit down, you order and walk away with your pizza, but they have a small counter and a bench outside that people crowd around to eat up their goods.  We tried the potato pizza, the porchetta sandwich pizza (oh my gawd), the eggplant pizza and one with caramelized onions, spinach and potato.  All were deeeelish and well worth the trip.

The three of us then meandered towards Tory's school and visited the Piazza Navona and walked around a bit before she had to head off to class.  After we parted ways, Justin and I headed to the Pantheon for a little look around. 

We spent the rest of our evening walking around the fashion shopping district near the Spanish steps.  Many of the stores are all the same designers that you can find in NYC, but there are also some other fun ones.  We had a glass of wine in a nearby piazza before heading to our dinner reservation at a place called Babette. 

Babette was actually recommended to us by the host at Ad Hoc, which was the restaurant we wanted to eat at the night before, but is booked until after September 22^nd.  That one is now on our list for the next trip.  We were however, not at all disappointed with dinner at Babette.  The atmosphere was sort of Italian with a quirky modern influence.  The artwork on the walls was somewhat abstract, the light fixtures very cool, and food very well done.  There were interesting flavor combinations and creative presentation.  It certainly was not your basic Italian, but it was very good.  I had a delicious chickpea soup for appetizer with a roasted rabbit in fennel sauce for dinner.  Justin had the largest veal cutlet I've ever seen, cooked perfectly crispy and not greasy at all.  We were stuffed by the time we left and exited the restaurant to pouring rain.  It was bound to show up at some point!  After a short game of hide and seek in the rain, we jumped in a Taxi and head back to our hotel.