Day two in Rome began as my alarm went off at about 7am…after only going to sleep at 3am! My body felt like it got hit by a bus, my feet were still sore as can be, and my blisters were quite red, but I began to stir my friends with phone calls to each of their rooms. We’d intended on getting up early (even knowing it would be tough to do so!) so that we could try to beat the lines to the Vatican Museum. After a valiant attempt to get my buddies up, I opened the window to let in some of the light of the day. I heard a mighty “Bongiorno!” of my friend screaming out the window of his room…only in Rome? J
We enjoyed a simple Italian breakfast at the hotel and headed out to The Vatican. Good morning, St. Peter’s Square! By the time we crossed the square, the line was already formed for the Vatican Museum, but it moved pretty well. We did our best to be charitable to the nagging tour salesman, who are certainly resilient! I kept looking at the clock, nervous about how long we’d actually have in the museum, because I had two tickets to the Scavi tour (excavations underneath St. Peter’s Basilica). By the time we made it into the museum, I only had about an hour. Sadly, I spent most of that time running (sometimes literally!) to be able to at least catch a glimpse of the Sistine Chapel. Wow, what a sight. I imagined it would be brighter inside, but maybe it just depends on the time of day. As I stood there, looking up and all around, all I could think about was the history of that place, the Cardinals who’d been in this room during so many conclaves, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit here as the Vicar of Christ was chosen. Praise God.
One of my friends and I scurried along, though, making our way out of the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum to get to our Scavi tour, which started at 11:30am. We got to access what seemed like an “exclusive” section of Vatican City (since we had to pass through some of the Swiss Guards!) to wait for the tour to start. Our tour guide was a young American woman from Alaska, and she led us on an incredible tour of the excavations underneath St. Peter’s, which included the ancient necropolis that once stood there, including the burial site of St. Peter. Really stunning, century after century built on top of it, and it is still there. Highly recommend you go on this tour if you go to Rome, but you have to get tickets at least a few days in advance!
We met back up with the rest of the group and hopped on the Metro to the Coliseum. A few headed inside to take the tour—I was content with taking photos from the outside, as I was determined to make it to Mass at some point during my Rome visit! So a friend and I wandered towards St. John Lateran. Along the way, we unexpectedly stumbled across the Basilica of San Clemente, run by Irish Dominican Friars. I quickly realized that I’d seen the beautiful mosaic above the altar there before—it had been featured in Fr. Robert Barron’s “Catholicism,” in the episode about the Mystical Body of Christ. The mosaic shows an elaborate series of vines and roots expanding out from the base of a crucifix, with different saints pictured at the various ends of the vines. A very cool and random discovery! Anyway, we made it to St. John Lateran, home of the seat of the Bishop of Rome, and made it to the evening daily Mass—in Italiano! Have I mentioned lately that I love being Catholic? I can go anywhere in the world and hear the same Mass readings and experience the same Mass; language is no barrier for the unity of the Mystical Body of Christ!
Hungry to enjoy our last meal in Rome, we headed to Piazza Navona (where we originally wanted to go the night before), passing the Pantheon along the way, though it was already closed. The Piazza was packed, and is home to a beautiful fountain, as well as the Church of St. Agnes! Sadly, the church was already closed for the day, so I wasn’t able to go inside. Instead, I said a brief prayer outside its gates and explained her story to my friends. Our meal was delicious, of course!
As we sat there at the restaurant, I kept looking at my watch, and started to get a little nervous about how fast time was going by. We still needed to go back to our hotel near St. Peter’s to get our bags, get to Roma Termini, get on a train back to Naples, and make in on the ship, all by 2am. It was already 8pm and we hadn’t nearly finished our meal. My friends all comforted me, as we sort of recalled seeing the train schedule and believed there to be a train from Rome to Naples that left in the 11pm hour. I was frantically searching for the timetables online to confirm that so I could eat the rest of my meal in peace, but couldn’t get anything to load properly, and as time went on, the others began to get nervous too. We finished up the meal and “double timed” it back to the hotel for our bags. After a couple of blocks, we actually started running. Yes, literally running through the streets of Rome. I’d say we ran at least a mile or more. After grabbing our bags, we flagged down two taxis and asked them to rush us to the train station. I felt like I was in a movie of a police chase the way we drove through Rome!
Arriving at Roma Termini around 10:50pm, we ran to the ticket machine only to find out that the next train to Naples wouldn’t be till 5am. Wow. We kept searching, thinking it was just a mistake—it wasn’t. We’d missed the last train. And now we were destined to get into big trouble for not making it back to the ship. Desperate for a new plan, we tried to think of all our options. Bus? Taxi? Could we even make it back in time that way? One of my friends ended up talking to a guy who spoke English and asked about where we were going. We told him we needed to get six people back to Naples by 2am. Well, he gave us his price and we took it. No, these were not taxis or a bus—just two random dudes with cars! Yeah—in hindsight, a little sketchy. We got on the road, split up three in each car. Our drivers didn’t speak English too well. I sat up in the front of my car, praying the rosary the whole time and trying to stay awake, to ensure we really were headed to Naples and not to some random place where who knows what could happen to us! I kept watching time tick by. It looked like we just could maybe make it back by 2am. We’d already called the ship to tell them we had some issues getting back but were doing everything we could to get home on time. We made several stops along the way, as the drivers kept arguing with each other about the best way to get to Naples, which ended up eating a lot of time. Though we arrived safely, we stepped onboard the ship at 2:13am. Late. By thirteen minutes. And yes, we did get in trouble, but not too bad. What was a tense few hours is now a fantastic story!!
Rome adventure complete, but Italian adventure still not over! Stay tuned for Day 4.
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