Today I woke up early early to meet my tour group at 7:35am.

It was so early they weren’t even serving breakfast from the hotel yet. I woke up with just barely enough time, so I devoured the last two slices of cold pizza while I power walked to the train station. Eating cold pizza for breakfast while walking is my toxic New Yorker trait, or, my version of the anime stereotype where the cute anime girl runs to school with toast in her mouth. My motto is, if I can’t eat it cold for breakfast while walking and it isn’t still delicious, then it ain’t really pizza. 😂 Italy pizza is very thin at the pointy corner of the pizza slice, and I had bought a very decadent pizza with a ton of toppings, so it was a little floppy and dicey until I’d eaten away all the structurally unsound parts. But I managed while not spilling anything or making a mess, so: success! 🎉

On the way to the Vatican, I was tantalized again by the Yoshitaka Amano exhibit:

Amano, I’m coming for yooou, please wait for me.

My tour of the Vatican Museums was guided by Jeanette, an American expat from Florida who came to Italy to study art history, and never left. I think they chose her because the tour had several kids under 18 – one 4, one 7, and one 11 – and she was absolutely fabulous with children. She had a dark sense of humor and a deep passion for the storytelling of art, and reminded me a lot of my friend Valerie.

The tour was very informative, but I wish I’d had more time to see it all. The tour was 2.5 hours long and she had to whip us through many of the rooms. She told us that if you spent 60 seconds looking at each object in the Vatican Museums, you would take 12 years to see everything! So I understand the hurry, but also, I didn’t like feeling rushed, and we missed one of the things I wanted to see most, the sculpture of Lacoon and his sons. I’d like to go to the museum without a tour next time so I can take in what I want at a more personalized pace.

With that said, it was really cool to hear her explain how the path we walked was the same path supplicants would traverse when they went to see the Pope. The point was to impress upon you the grandeur, wealth, and power the Pope had, and make you feel tiny by comparison. Intimidation! Well, it worked, because it was absolutely dazzling.

Photo 1: The view of St. Peter’s Basilica. It was amazing that it looked so distant even though we were comparatively right next to it. That’s how huge the Vatican is!

Photo 2-3: Hall of miscellaneous things. Like the Baths of Diocletian, as they dug and found priceless works, they just dumped them all in this room for storage. So you’ll get a toe, or just a head, and so on. Apparently one of the Popes got very offended at all the nude bodies, chopped all of the statues’ genitals off, and put fig leaves there instead. Oops.

I seriously cannot get enough of Roman ceilings.

Photos 4-5: The hall of tapestries. It was nice and cozy because the wall hangings made it a little warmer; they said the hall can be brutal in the summer. I love tapestries. Many of them used real gold and silver threads! Their detail was gorgeous.

Photo 6: the hall of maps. This was actually my favorite room, I thought all the maps were so beautiful and that ceiling!! The guide said the maps are amazingly 80% still accurate today. The discrepancies are because some towns don’t exist any more, and natural erosion of the landscape.

Photo 7-14: the Papal apartments. I can’t imagine living in such finery. I’d be dizzy every day! It was cool that in the study, where knowledge and learning were prized, the floor mosaic explicitly referenced other religions bc knowledge is power.

Raphael got the commission to paint the papal apartments bc of nepotism – his uncle was working for the Pope, and when the Pope asked if he knew a good artist, he recommended Rafael. Rafael was very young, and died young too – at 37, the same age I’m at right now. He was eager and wanted to paint the Sistine chapel instead, but when he saw Michaelangelo’s work he was so humbled and impressed that he put him into the painting of The School Of Athens to immortalize him. So cool.

Speaking of, The School of Athens is here – I’ve loved this painting for a long time, also since art history classes in high school, and it was a total delight to see it in person. It’s HUGE. The colors, like everywhere else, are so vibrant too.

Even the most simplistic walls were marvels of different fancy stone. I’ve never thought about the color, texture and pattern of stone before this trip. The way they utilize them in combination is so lovely.

Photo 14 is in the style of the beginning of the Renaissance, where everything is a little less perfectly depicted and a little more static. These were painters brought to Rome from Florence, which was quite a trip back in the day.

There were the patterns of a chapel designed by Matisse! I love modern art and this was so stylish.

They had a work by Francis Bacon too, ooooh:

No photos are allowed in the Sistine chapel, so I have none to show you. It also didn’t feel holy, due to the tourist crowding and the dull roar of all the people talking, but considering that it’s literally part of a museum now it didn’t feel as offensive. You can see so much detail in the paintings, even though they’re so far away. It’s amazing to think that every Pope is selected and ushered in there. The history felt like it saturated even the air.

Our tour guide told us that there’s apparently tension and friction between the Vatican museum and St. Peter’s chapel. The museums are owned by the Italian government, who wants to make money. And St. Peter’s wants to make money too, but money they take in vanishes into the black hole of the Vatican City and doesn’t go to the Roman government, so they’re constantly playing tug of war. While you’re coming from the museums, you’re considered a Tourist, not a Pilgrim, so they don’t let you get close to anything and your view and experience of the Basilica is limited. But it worked out for me, because I’d already gone as a pilgrim twice, so this time I got to see the center of the Basilica and places that only tourists were able to get close to.

I also realized that many parts had been opened for the Jubilee, and were now closed off again. And I was finally able to confirm that I had gone through the proper door and get my Indulgence. 😭

Then me and my bestie visited the Vatican post office again to mail some postcards:

I had purchased a book on Bernini from the Vatican gift shop on Day 3, and been flipping through it before bed. The book said there was a bridge full of Bernini angel sculptures on the way to the Vatican (so close by). I went to check it out, and I was so deeply moved. I think the Bridge of Angels might be my favorite place in Rome.

Each angel is holding a different instrument of the Passion of Christ, and they were grouped into pairs. For example, the flogger and the column Jesus was tied to. The detailed, complicated and unique expressions, the way their stone robes fluttered and flapped as if caught in a high wind, and their outstretched wings totally captivated me. I was here for a long time.

I also laughed because we were surrounded by beauty, but every person was totally captivated by this seagull instead.

Eventually I got hungry. Careful googling using my waiter friend’s advice netted me a bustling family-owned trattoria close to the high tourist area, that still had a lot of Italians there. I ordered cacio e pepe, which is a very simple pasta dish that I’ve been trying to master. I think I’m finally starting to understand the texture they’re looking for when they say al dente. It makes the food so enjoyable to eat. The sauce was so good that I mopped it up with the bread, a first for me in Italy. I finished with some cherry gelato, which was refreshingly sour and sweet.

I had a reservation at a Michelin rated restaurant for the evening, so I didn’t want to eat too much. Which meant it was time for more walking, to make sure I’d be good and hungry! What better place to visit than Trevi Fountain?

On the way there, I found the column of Marcus Aurelius, which was under construction:

And then there it was!

OH MY GOSH, WAS IT CROWDED. It was so crowded that you had to wait in a queue to get close enough to the fountain to toss coins in. I tossed in two: one for returning to Rome, and one for finding love in Rome. Why not! Dream big! Tossing the coins was really fun.

The fountain itself was beautiful too. I loved that it was the terminus of a still working aquaduct, and that the fountain was a celebration of the water that nourished the city. The city is covered not only in big ornamental fountains to cool the populace, but also ancient water fountains meant for drinking and washing. I’ve used them myself and it’s so cool to have that plentiful water shared with everyone.

Jets also kept flying overhead and leaving contrails. Later we learned that they were flying to celebrate the visit of the English King and Queen. It was so funny that as an American, I hardly batted an eyelash at military jets flying overhead, but all the Europeans were like “What is happening?!?!” And the Italians were like “Why are they wasting my tax money?!” We Americans sure live in a society, huh.

I still had time until my reservation, but after Trevi Fountain I didn’t want to stay in the tourist area – I’d had enough of the crowds. So I decided to visit the Basilica of St. Mary Major. It was a beautiful 20ish minute walk. Lots of hills, but I took my time and it was really nice.

The Basilica itself was show stopping.

I didn’t take many photos inside, because it felt like such a holy place. Compared to the tremendous size of St. Peter, St. Mary Major felt intimate. It was so beautifully ornate, but there were also a lot of details on ground level, which made the space feel more humble.

The area of the holy relic was also open, super rare. St. Mary Major hosts the relic of the crib of the Baby Jesus. I was so moved as I descended the stairs to go see it that I was trembling. I moved to the side to pray, because I wanted to pray for like 20 minutes and it was crowded. But unlike other churches, it was crowded with pilgrims – dozens of people wearing all different kinds of Jubilee scarves from all over the world. People still took selfies with the holy relic, but twice as many knelt and prayed, so it felt all right.

I moved away to a nearby low bench because I wasn’t ready to leave the relic yet. When I was there, a kind older woman asked me what the relic was. I thought at first it must be a relic of Mary, considering the name of the church, but the woman pointed out that since Mary ascended to heaven she couldn’t have left behind any relics. So I looked it up, and we learned together that it was the manger. I also learned that Bernini was buried there, and that it was Pope Franky’s favorite church – he usually prayed there before overseas trips, and he had asked to be buried there upon his death. Also, in classic Catholic fashion, St. Jerome was said to be buried there but they had lost track of him. They didn’t know where exactly he was. 😂

I went through the basilica’s holy door. Once outside, I decided to walk to the restaurant so I wouldn’t have to rush. It was a lovely walk. I found another small ornamental garden, and also…I think that’s a hot priest calendar…?

I arrived early, so I read until it was time.

The food was amazing; the service was a bit iffy. There was a piece of plastic in my food, and the receipt had errors on it at first. The service was unsmiling and the servers were rushing everywhere like crazy. However, because of the the food was SO DELICIOUS. The best pinot noir I’ve ever had, and the flavors and textures were sumptuous. I got a prix fixe menu, so it had three courses and dessert.

I loved that the appetizer had the colors of the Italian flag; this is a common conceit that apparently goes back to the time of the Romans, when they held that every plate should have the colors red, white, green, gold, and black to stimulate the appetite. (Thank you, tasting history on YouTube.) It was a meatball in a parsley sauce, a creamy flaky cod with champagne mushrooms on top, and a tomato tartare that was so juicy. The flavors individually and together were sumptuous.

The pasta course was an Amatriciana, which I hadn’t had yet. Ooooh my gosh. The best pasta I’ve had in Italy so far. The sauce was silky, the pasta fresh and bouncy, and the bacon was fried to a crisp that brightened up the texture of the whole dish. I’m still thinking about this dish and it’s been days now.

Second course I got lamb and potatoes. They served from two different parts of the lamb, do you could appreciate the differences in texture and flavor between different cuts. I got back and leg. This was the dish that had plastic in it, which was jarring, but the upside was that the chef actually came out to talk to me, and getting to meet him and tell him how much I loved his cooking was really nice.

Lastly was a simple dessert of freshly made ricotta with sour cherries, and a side of crisp wafers. I have never considered that ricotta could be used as a dessert, and I feel like an entire new world has opened to me. It was sweet and smooth and creamy and rich, with pieces of wafer that shattered when you bit down. Ahhh, it was so good. I love dairy. 😭

After feasting like a king, I turned in early. And that’s it for day 5! I’m still trying to catch up, ahhh. Onto day 6!