Rapporto di Roma 6: Walk to the Vatican

Unbelievably, the next day was also sunny! We decided to walk to the Vatican. We headed off in the direction of the Tiber and through some pretty nice neighborhoods of Rome. We saw many fashion designer stores but when we saw the Ferrari store, we could not resist and had to go in!

This is the car that was currently racing Formula 1 in Bahrain [and won!]. Though the staff told us wouldn't get far in it, because the engine was across the room on display. [I didn't think my ass would fit into the cockpit anyhow.]


Now that is a piece of machinery! I bought a bright red Ferrari cap with thin red, white and green racing stripes on the sides. It is really hot/cute.

We crossed the Tiber River at the Ponte Cavour. I took this photo of the River as we crossed:

You can see the next bridge to the south, Ponte Umberto. Then, I turned to my left and shot the street light at the Rome side of the bridge.


Traffic looks busy. We crossed the bridge and continued walking along the Lungotevere, or Riverwalk, towards the next touristy attraction. We came upon the Palazzo di Giustizia or Hall of Justice, which was built by Guglielmo Calderini between 1888 and 1910.


Of course the whole way we were walking on this side of the Tiber was lined with people selling souvenirs. Knock-off handbags and scarves, small camera tripods, all manner of Rome related crapola, and junky rosary beads. When I had been here in the sixties, it was really much better. The souvenir sellers were here, but they had better quality stuff. My mom bought a real coral necklace and they had real marble rosaries and eggs.

Suddenly, I saw the cutest little tri-color dog! I raced after it, but it was off lead and once I located the owner, I followed her. She was moving rather quickly through the crowd. I did catch up to her, but she said did not grant her permission, saying that her dog, a basenji, was very shy. What a shame! Her dog looked straight at me questioningly. It looked kind of like this:


We continued walking and shortly came upon the Castel St. Angelo, originally built as the tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian between 135 and 139 AD. Eh, more antiquity... But it was too beautiful a day to go into places


Finally, we made it to the Vatican. All along the way, I had assured Sean that there would be no line to get into St. Peter's. Then we get there and there is a HUGE line! I was shocked!


You can't see it in this photo, but the line went all the way from the front door, down one side of the colonnade to where we were standing! It was moving, but we weren't into standing on any lines. I was so bummed! I was very tired and Sean wanted to explore the other side of the river and I wanted to head back to the hotel. So we split up and I went back to rest. I took one more photo of Via Portoghesi on my way home.


Though claustrophobic, it had three jewelry stores that were reminiscent of Tiffany's.