We took a train early in the morning from Florence to Rome.
The train took a little less than two hours from Florence. Once in Rome, we found our way to the stop for one of the city’s “hop-on, hop-off” tour buses. On board, they gave us our own headphones which we could plug into an outlet and choose from six different languages to hear our tour.
An early stop was the Colosseum. We hopped off and walked around for quite a while. We went around the Colosseum then walked through the archeology area near the Roman Forum. We picked up some lunch on-the-go as we kept walking and ended up at the Pantheon. From there, we started back toward the tour bus’s route to complete the back half of its circuit.
Waiting at the bus stop, a salesman pitched a tour that was about to leave that would take us into St Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel (for 99 euros each). We opted for the tour and had to quickly cover some distance to meet up with the group about to leave.
We joined a group of about eight and made our way into the Vatican. It was a Wednesday, and the Pope had held mass earlier in the day. We were told several times that the Jubilee next year would make this same visit impossible. Our guide walked us through several exhibits, including great examples of Roman sculpture – a few busts that still had their glass eyes, the Belvedere Torso…
Finally, a long gallery led up to the Sistine Chapel. The guide led us to about three different locations throughout the crowded room to take in the artwork. After five or ten minutes inside, we were led out a back door and down a long, private staircase. This exited next to the entrance to the Basilica, taking us past the longest lines to enter the church. We spent a few minutes walking through the church before heading back to find our bus again.
We were now late in the afternoon and traffic was much heavier. About a half mile from the train depot, we asked the bus driver to let us off (since the bus was barely moving) and walked the rest of the way. We had time to eat at the station (at “Eataly”) before heading back to our hotel in Florence.