SATURDAY, April 6, 2024

A once in a lifetime Vatican experience

This morning I enjoyed one of the coolest experiences of the trip, if not my life. The tour company Walks of Italy offers a unique tour of the Vatican Museums called the Key Master Tour, where 20 people max walk around the museums early in the morning with the real Vatican Key Master (and a Vatican tour guide), unlocking all of the galleries and turning on all of the lights before the museum opens to guests. It was a real splurge but I knew it would be worth it, especially since the only day I could visit the Vatican was a Saturday and I’d be fighting peak crowds.

The call time for the tour was 5:45AM at the entrance to the Vatican Museum, which meant me getting a very early 5:20AM taxi from the hotel. At least there was no traffic! Arriving at the museum it was still totally dark out, and we signed in and met the group before getting started inside.

This will be packed with people in a few hours

We took a fancy elevator up to the second floor and the start of the tour

I was happy to see that we’d be able to get that iconic Vatican shot of the spiral staircase! It starts at a gift shop at the top and winds down to an exit.

We made our way (past a pretty outside early morning view of the St. Peter’s Basilica dome) to the office of the official key master who we’d be following around, and his ridiculously big ring of keys.

Then the tour started…

Text about Laocoon

The sun was starting to rise over Rome, so we took the opportunity to visit an open balcony to take in the view.

Concluding the tour….
(Above: image of bookmark)

Now on my own, I walked backed into the museum for a little while to take my time wandering and give some of those galleries a closer look. I didn’t really have a map or a plan, and found myself revisiting the Raphael rooms and of course the Sistine Chapel, but also a whole contemporary art wing that I didn’t expect to exist. Who know the Vatican had a whole Matisse collection?

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Finally, I spent a little bit of time in the various gift shops. This was easily the most elaborately decorated gift shop I’ve ever seen haha. What a ceiling!

While the tour was fantastic and then some, what it didn’t include was a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica itself, so that was next on my list. There is a back way in through the Sistine Chapel, but only with a tour group and our guide Blanche has told us clearly that we weren’t that and would need to go in the main way. It’s free to tour the church but there’s a long security line.

So I headed out the way we had come in in the morning (it was much more crowded now at 10am to say the least), and followed the literal big wall around the outside of Vatican City to make my way to St. Peter’s Square.

I found myself coming in through the back of Bernini’s collonnade, and into St. Peter’s Square with the Basilica at the end.

I knew it would be impressive and grand but it honestly took my breath away at first glimpse.

Also impressive and grand was the security line.

Leaving the basilica, I was ready for some lunch. I had planned to go to a well-reviewed sit-down restaurant, but decided to just grab a quick bite instead. I kept hearing about the “trapizzino” which is a relatively newer trendy street food that’s basically a triangular pocket of pizza dough with fillings, and quickly found a bar nearby that sold them. They come served in this very cute little stand so that it can stay upright, otherwise you’d have a big mess on your hands haha. I got the “polpetta al sumo” which is a simple meatball in tomato sauce, and it was delicious!

The Prati neighborhood near the Vatican was one of the few places I’d be that was on a Metro line, so I decided to take a train back to my hotel to change for a much-needed spa appointment. The Rome Metro system only has two lines and it’s pretty impossible to mess up, so it was very easy to find my way!

In my effort to really try to unwind on this vacation, I had booked a treatment at the spa at a beautiful 5-star hotel near my own hotel, the Hotel de la Ville. I was originally just going to go for the treatment, but in reading about all of the amenities at the Irene Forte Spa I decided to spend a few hours there to really take advantage of the R&R.

And man was it the right decision. The facility was beautiful, and the staff really lovely, and I ended up relaxing in the thermal area for about an hour before my appointment, enjoying their Mediterranean salt room, hydro pool with jet beds, and hot/cold foot baths. There was only one other woman in there so it was nice and quiet. Bliss.

Already relaxed, it was time for my appointment. I always like to try to pick something with a local flavor when I travel, so I had booked the 90 minute Mediterranean Nourishing Treatment, described in the brochure as: “A deeply nourishing full-body treatment. Start with a double scrub with our Apricot Creamy Body Scrub and Trapani Sea Salt Body Scrub to remove impurities and leave your skin twice as smooth. Enjoy a full-body massage using our nourishing Sicilian oils, followed by the application of our White Wine Body Cream, leaving you relaxed and moisturized to perfection.”

My therapist Valeria was lovely, and gave me the choice of some aromatherapy – lavender, lemon, orange, or eucalyptus (I went with a refreshing orange). The whole treatment was fantastic, and afterward I spent another half hour or so in their infrared relaxation loungers, a tranquil, dimly lit room with a TV that looped different peaceful nature scenes with pleasant background sound tones.

Feeling fully relaxed, I left the spa and headed outside. The hotel happened to be right at the top of the Spanish Steps, so I wanted to walk over and check out the famous site. I was feeling too clean and calm to walk all the way down and all the way back up, so I just checked out the view for a little while before heading on my way.

I wanted to make it an easy night in, so I had found a well-reviewed pinsa place on the way back to my hotel. Pinsa is essentially oval-shaped pizza, though as I would learn from our Flash Pack guide the next day, they consider pinsa and pizza two different things. I made my way (passing Bernini’s great fountain of Triton in Piazza Barberini), and followed the map to Habemus Pinsa… though when I got to the right street I was definitely questioning it as it was a desolate block and the restaurant wasn’t really marked.

It was the right place, though, which was empty aside from another group of tourists. It was about 6:45, so I wasn’t surprised – Italians eat very late! (If they’d be here at all – tough to tell if locals would eat here or if it was just a tourist stop, though this was the first place I encountered where the woman working there didn’t speak any English, so thinking it might be for everyone.) There were so many choices and I couldn’t make up my mind, so quickly googled some reviews to see if there was one that was recommended a lot, and based on that decided on the Scappocia – tomato, mozzarella, and spicy salami. And the people were right – it was SO good.

I was only able to eat maybe half of it, but got a to-go box and went back to my hotel and spent the night just lounging and watching TV while snacking on the rest of the pinsa. Perfect relaxing night in, especially after such an eventful early morning. Look at me actually vacationing instead of running around Rome to squeeze everything in!