The plan for our second day in Rome was to get up early and head directly to the Vatican. But somehow our alarm clock didn’t wake us up until after 8:30. We managed to get out of the small B&B in no time and headed toward the bus station in front of the train station.
Several buses go by the Vatican City. Many of them are usually packed with tourists, and so with pickpockets. When we jumped into the first bus that would go to the Vatican we were relieved that it wasn’t fully packed. We stayed close together and kept a watchful eye on each other. The ride took about 20 minutes and we got off the bus without any unfortunate incident.
St Peter’s Square was expansive and huge, and so was the crowd. The colonnades extending from the basilica look like two embracing arms, and they were a sight to behold and admire. The square was as big as, or actually bigger than, I had imagined it would be when I was a kid. I stood in awe and felt the gratification of realizing a childhood dream, of one day coming to stand at this glorious square. To me, the moment denotes something of significance in my very humble life.
We soon got into the end of a very long line to get into the basilica. While waiting we observed that people in line were coming from all over the world. We also found that cutting line is a universal sport. Mainland Chinese really don’t have a monopoly on this.
Because we needed to catch our cruise ship in the afternoon I proposed several times of giving up and leaving, but Rosa was not an easy quitter. We waited for about under one hour and finally, we were in the basilica. Boy, were we surprised!
Last year we visited Vatican Museum. We felt the museum was beautiful and astonishing. But St Peter’s Basilica is totally out of this world. It is enormous in scale, but at the same time exquisite and lavish in every small detail. It is totally awesome.
By this time my visual sensory receptors had already overblown and it was time to head toward our cruise ship.
We hailed a taxi to get back to the B&B, grabbed our luggage, walked a block to the train station, and boarded the train for Civitavecchia. By the time we arrived at the cruise line check-in counter, it was almost four o’clock. The cleaning crew was ready to close up the area. We were among the few latecomers to check in.
Once settled down in our cabin and started reading the onboard newsletter, I realized that I had not eaten all day. Thankfully the café was still open before the dinner time.
At the café, I sat down by the window. With a simple plate of sushi in front and some circulating seabirds outside, I had a feeling that this would be a fun cruise again.
-Joe
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