The Purple Penguin

Leaving day, so we took our time in the morning. Got everything packed and ready to go, checked out and left our bags at the hotel while we had a last walk around Rome. The day was cloudy and wet – showers mostly.

So we headed out to the Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli, which we had tried to go by Monday afternoon on the way back from the Vatican but managed to go past the road and didn’t want to go back (also it’s up a steep flight of steps and we just weren’t up to climbing more steps!) More Michelangelo, this time his tomb for Pope Julius II and the sculpture of Moses. Joe was looking forward to lighting it up; you put in a donation to contribute to the lightening of the sculpture but one website implied it was put money in to turn on the light. Joe was picturing a diorama or something, I think, and was quite disappointed it was just another renaissance statue. But what a lovely statue. We also had a look at the chains the basilica is named for – supposedly the chains used to bind St Peter in Jerusalem fused to the ones used to bind him in Rome.

We then headed for the Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli (the Spanish Church in Rome) where Alexander VI (Borja/Borgia) is buried.

We then decided to finish our tour of Rome where we started – at the Pantheon. As we were heading there we heard thunder so we hurried along and got in just before the skies opened. And we sat and watched the rain fall through the oculus. The floor and drainage are apparently original and work very well. The floor has a slight incline to the edges, but even so remained dry as the rain goes through the holes to the drainage underneath the centre.

When the rain stopped we headed back out, had a very early lunch (pizza!) and then got our bags, walked to the train station, and off to the airport. They didn’t move our seats, but we were across the aisle from each other so not as bad as we had for our flight out. In the end however, the two seats next to Joe were empty so I moved over there. And the bloke who was trying to get Joe to move so he could sit closer to his partner ended up in my seat and she ended up in the middle there (musical chairs!) So it wasn’t as bad a flight as I feared (the bloke originally next to me was a spreader and kept jabbing his elbow into my side, ugh. He ended up in the woman’s aisle seat – musical chairs on the plane!) Home very late and very tired.

Good things:

• Walking all over Rome!
• The weather (in the 20s and sunny every day except the last)
• Lots of ruins and great art!
• Parks!
• The food – we did not have a bad meal. Some indifferent meals, some good meals, some great meals, but nothing that we would say ‘ugh don’t eat there!’ (though some of the coffee wasn’t very nice – surprisingly)
• Early morning in the Vatican and seeing the Sistine Chapel with very few people in it. In fact, getting to see the Chapel three times with different levels of crowding.
• The top of the Colosseum away from the crowds and wonderful views.
• Very, very good coffee at Casina Valadier, in the park overlooking Rome.

Not so good:

• Sore feet
• The stack of laundry that needs to be done