We landed at Fuimicino a few minutes early, just before noon. It was pretty quick to get our luggage and exit the terminal (I guess cause Italy and Amsterdam are both part of Schengen it was like a domestic flight). We didn't see our names on any of the driver's signs so texted him (our very organized hotel had sent us his info earlier). He was at another terminal but came over quickly and we were on our way to the hotel!
There was not much traffic and it took less than 30 minutes to reach Hotel Monte Cenci in central Rome. The hotel is up a small winding street that the taxi van barely fit. It was only 1pm and our room wasn't ready so we had a coffee on the 5th floor rooftop terrace. The hotel manager dropped by to chat and welcome us.
Because it was so quick to reach the hotel we still had time to pick up our tickets for midnight mass (the ticket office closes at 4pm). Our hotel room was ready by now so we freshened up and then headed out.
It was a nice 25 minute walk along the Tiber to the Vatican. The instructions in the email from the ticket people said to go to the Bronze Door where the right-hand Bernini colonnade begins. But is that the right side facing the basilica or from the basilica's perspective? Does the colonnade begin at the basilica or the street?
There was a long line up that I didn't think we had go through. But it turned out everyone entering the grounds goes through security, including just to pick up tickets. It wasn't that long to get through, about 20 minutes.
Then we were on a Bronze Door hunt. It was on the right side facing the basilica, and from the colonnade pillar closest to the basilica. Only one person could enter, so Heather went through the Bronze Door, guarded by Swiss Guards with big swords. Heather had a bag of sand the same weight as the envelope and hop-scotched in, while I stayed outside, took some pics and yelled after her, in the Latin alphabet, "Jehovah" begins with an I *
* some of these things may have actually happened in an Indiana Jones movie or a Dan Brown novel; this whole ticket process seemed rather elaborate.
A couple minutes later Heather emerged with our tickets! I was hoping for some fancy ticket gold-embossed with hand written calligraphy, but it was regular stock blue paper.
We walked up to the front of the basilica for a good vantage for pics of the square. Then we noticed that it was possible to enter the foyer of the basilica so in we went. Wandered around a bit. There was hardly any other tourists around. It was still possible to climb the rotunda so we bought our tickets (there were only two groups in line ahead of us, and they took the elevator. I think normally even just the ticket line has huge lineups).
It's a quick four minute walk up to the base of the dome, about 50m above the papal altar. We only passed by two other tourists going down. I could see this being a long slow walk at other times. We walked around the circumference, with great views down. There's a 10ft high fence so pics weren't possible, although it was one of the few times I would have used a selfie stick.
It's then another 50 or so metres to the top of the dome. This is a more awkward climb, as the corridor slants inwards and narrows to about 30" in places. The last bit is up a circular staircase with a rope down the middle for assistance. Luckily both going up and down we didn't pass anyone going in the other direction. I could see it being stinking hot in the summer too - at this time of year it was fine.
We reached the top in ten minutes, and we were greeted with great views outside of St Peter's Square. The sun was low in the horizon and so the lighting was great.
We took the same awkward climb back down, and exited into a large room with nice artwork. Took us a few seconds to realize we were now in St Peter's Basilica! There might have been twenty other tourists inside. So we walked around, took lots of pics, planned out our seating strategy for tomorrow.
Finally we headed back to our hotel, washed up, and headed out to dinner in Trastevere. It's a popular place for restaurants, just across the Tiber from our hotel. Dinner was good, the wine was excellent, we even had espresso (after 3pm!)
Not a bad start at all to our little trip, considering our flight had just touched down hours earlier.
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