The last Sunday of the month is free at the Vatican, so early in the morning I woke up to try and beat the crowds as best as I could. At 7, San Pietro’s Basilica and square were nearly empty—just a few early risers and people praying.
I notice a line forming around the walls of the Vatican city to see the museum, so I get in line and wait for an hour and a half before the doors open. The museum was beautiful, the architecture inside almost as much as the objects being displayed. After wandering around the museum for a few hours, and as the exhibits start to close, I decide to return home and get some rest.
When I got home, my roommates were about to head out to show their friends, who were visiting, the city–so I decided to join them. We walked with them all over—from the Pantheon, to the Trevi Fountain, to the Spanish Steps, to Piazza del Popolo, and then down the Tiber to Isola Tiburtina and across it to Trastevere, where we ate at a Chinese/Italian restaurant.
My roommate and I decided to walk to the Trevi fountain again to see it at night, and it was beautiful—all lit up with most of the traffic from the day back in their hotels. We sat there at the fountain, people-watching for the better part of 45 minutes, until finally, a woman in red, plunges herself into the Trevi fountain and sweeps up some of the money, throws it into a plastic bag and scampers away.
On the way back home, it starts to rain, and we walk back to the Spanish steps to catch a bus back. It stops raining before we get there, but the short rain storm as completely emptied the Spanish steps, something which I never expected to see in Rome.
