[Travel] Rome - 6 days 5 nights F&E (2/2)

Ciao Readers!!!

Welcome back to part 2 of my Rome trip. In this post, I will touch on Vatican City and Food!

Vatican City
St. Peter's Basilica
A definite must to visit if you are in Vatican City! Those of you who watch Angel & demons will find this place like a deja vu. It was the scene where the Camerlengo was escaping from the Cardinals who wanted to arrest him and he committed suicide here.

For those who did not watch, it's a very big cathedral, with very high ceilings of 138m. Every step you take is like walking through history. The interior is really very beautiful with sections being divided for individual prayers groups / service / mass.

 

 

St. Peter's Square

St Peter's Square is located just outside St Peter's Basilica. This is the place to gather for the Papal Blessing.

 

(The sky looks really beautiful eh, but the weather at that time was freezing cold...)

 

On the way to St Peter's Square (just behind this wall!)

Cupola of St Peter's Basilica
Cupola also known as dome. Located at the top of St Peter's Bascilia. Tickets can be purchased at about €7,00. There's a choice to choose whether you want to take the elevator or to climb the stairs. Well, we took the elevator ;)

See the stairs in the middle of the pic? Yes, climb that...

Follow the trail...

Voila, we found ourselves at the top of St Peter's Basilica

Climb...Climb...Climb...

View of St Peter's Square (Pretty eh)

Time to climb down...

A souvenir shop!

 

Papal Blessing, Angelus
When we were in Paris, we heard news of Pope Benedict's resignation :( and the Pope will only have his Papal Blessing, Angelus (Pope on Sundays). So thankfully, we were in Rome on Sunday and proceeded to wait for Pope Benedict (one of his last few times) to appear at a window of his apartment at 12pm. It was very crowded, as I suppose many had heard of his resignation. The Papal Blessing lasted for about 15 - 20 minutes.

Souvenir Shop
This is probably one of my favourite place to be in. There's a certain sense of peace and tranquility in this shop and we spent 2 hours (or more) browsing the Souvenirs while soaking up in the serenity. Sisters tend to the customers. They are very polite, and one of the sisters tried to strike a conversation with us but to our utter dismay, she spoke to us in Italian (which we don't understand at all), and our respond were to smile and nod our heads (hope we didn't nod for the wrong things o.O). I love this place!!!!

Post Office
It was interesting to note that there's a Post Office within Vatican City. But what surprised me was that there were a lot of people writing postcards! We also followed the crowd and send postcards to friends back home as souvenirs. *Chuckles*

Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel‎
Also known as Musei Vaticani, this place is a hot tourist spot of the Vatican City consisting of religious arts. Attracting a lot of tourists and on peak seasons, you can queue for hours, so go early! When we reached, there was a long queue and locals were seen trying to sell pictures of the Vatican Museums to tourists.

 

As it was considered a low peak season, we queued for slightly more than 30 minutes to reach the audio guides counters. There were a lot of people / tourists when we arrived at the audio guide counters. You will have to rent these audio guides if you have a guided tour.

 

The Standard Tour audio guide costs €7,00

 

So exciting eh. And off we go for our own tour armed with our audio guides. We did not opt for any guided tour, but I was told that guided tour would help in understanding the Museum better. Oh yes,  it's a really very pretty museum! You have to be there to appreciate their art. Here are some outdoor pictures...

 

A very serene place :)

Guided Tour!

 

And the indoor pictures...

 

They have very pretty ceiling

 

Another ceiling with paintings!

Colourful and Artful ceiling

 

After spending a couple of hours admiring the paintings, the arts and the beautiful ceilings, we are off to the Sistine Chapel. Do note that there were staffs bellowing to tourists in Sistine Chapel to prevent any picture taking (I believe it's due to copyright issues... shrug). Anyway, I managed to take a few pictures discreetly :P Oops.

 

 

And of course, they have food! So we dine in their cafeteria. We bought food from their Hamburger & Grill stall.

 

You will find souvenirs here too! If you have not purchase any souvenirs earlier, you may spend some $$$ here.

 

And finally after a few hours, we finally take our leave from the Musei Vaticani via the famous stairs. And this is the stairs where many couples like to take pre-wedding photos.

 

 

 

Food
San Crispino
- Address: Via della Panetteria, 42  00187 Rome, Italy (Tel: +39 06 679 3924)
Gelato is really popular in Rome! It amazed me to see lots of people eating ice cream in such a cold cold weather. One of the best and delightful ice cream is probably found in a shop named San Crispino. San Crispino doesn't look like a fancy outlet, rather they have a counter that are full of metal containers containing ice cream! And since we have no idea what's inside, we can only vaguely guess the taste based on the name written there. They pride themselves as having no artificial ingredients. So if you are in Rome, do try out this place, it's awesome!

 

Crema al Caramello & Creama al Basilico

Caramel Ice Cream & Alcoholic Ice Cream

 

The best part of this Gelato is that it's not very sweet. I loved this combination as one (caramel) had a sweet taste and the other (alcoholic) had a little bitter taste. Simply awesome!

 

Crema al Pistacchio & Uva Fragola

Pistachio Ice Cream & Concord Grape Ice Cream

 

I loved the Pistachio ice cream as I could really taste the Pistachio and not some ersatz Pistachio ice cream. The Concord Grape had a certain uniqueness. Both ice creams had a very rich and smooth taste, very much to my delight!

 

Trevi Café S.r.l
- Address: Via del Lavatore, 46/48  00187 Roma (Tel: +39 06 678 7875)
There are many shops selling ice cream. We were in the vicinity of Trevi Fountain when we decided to try another shop selling ice cream. We spotted Trevi-Cafe, filled with Korean tourists. As it was packed with people, the staffs at that time did not provide a very good service. Here, a coupon had to be purchased first, then you can select the flavor of your choice.

 

Fragola Ice Cream & Caffe Ice Cream

 

We had the strawberry and coffee flavoured ice cream. In my opinion, it did not taste as rich and smooth as the one we had in San Crispino.

 

Gelateria Tre Fontane
Another place to get ice cream :)

 

Zio Ciro
We were wandering around in search for food when we caught sight of the signboard that had set meals. And hence we decided to try out this place. I liked this place for it was very cozy and there wasn't many people when we entered the restaurant.

Menu Sorrento

1 Pizza Margherita

1 Toasted bread - 1 Bruschetta

1 Drink - 1 Bibita

€10,00

 

Menu Lasagna

1 Lasagna

1 Toasted bread - 1 Bruschetta

1 Drink - 1 Bibita

€10,00

Caffe d'orzo - Barley coffee

 

Caffee e Pasticceria (U. guiliani)
Located near our hotel, this place accepts only cash. The staff was quite friendly.

 

Spremuta di Frutta (€6,00)

Fresh Fruit Juices

 

Tortellini (€7,00)

Home-Made Pasta with Meat and Tomato Sauce

 

Lasagna (€7,00)

Home-Made Pasta Lasagne

 

Rosati
We were heading toward Spanish Steps when we chanced upon this place.

The (€7,00)

Tea

 

Risotto alla Milanese (€16,00)

Risotto with Saffron and Parmesan

Spaghetti all'Amatriciana (€16,00)

With streaky Bacon, Pepper, Parmesan and Tomato Sauce

 

I felt a little queasy after eating the Risotto. I suppose there's too much cheese in it and my tummy can't take it. But it's a nice place to people-watch.

 

McDonald's
We tried the McDonald's in Rome. I was quite fascinated by the Easy Order machine as this is the first time I came across such machine where you place your order and pay via the machine and collect your food from the counter when your number is called. Interesting eh...

 

Snippets of Rome

Some pictures which I took in Rome...

 

 

Overall, Rome is an interesting place. I particularly enjoyed the Vatican City and will endeavor to visit the Vatican City when I have the chance. Also, to see the newly appointed Pope Francis! It was in Rome where we nearly was pickpocket. We were walking along some Lane when there were a group of ladies holding cupboards and muttering Konichiwa to us. If we have not acted quickly and U-turn back, we could have been pickpocket already. So do be careful and take care of your belongings at all times.

And that marked the end of my Rome's trip. We headed to Florence next. So stay tuned!

Tiny Pea