Eager to begin our adventures this morning, we were planning on getting up at 6:30 so we could get to the Vatican early before the crowds. However, our "scheduled" wake up call never occurred and we all ignored the watch alarm until 8:30am. Oops. After a "hearty breakfast" of bread, croissants, and dry cereal, we ventured to the Vatican City around 10:30.
At the Vatican, we bypassed 2 blocks of waiting lines, thanks to our online prebooked tickets, and easily entered the museum. We did another audio tour, but we each bought one for 7 Euro, which isn't too shabby and we were able to enjoy the history a little more this time after a good night of sleep, minus Meredith. Rooms after rooms we saw Egyptian artifacts, paintings, statues, sculptures, chinese tours groups with matching red hats, courtyards, fountains, tapestries, lots of B.O. (including us and others), and magnificant intricantly decorated ceilings, we finally made it to the highight of the Vatican- the Sistene Chapel.
At first glance, we all thought "is this it?". But after listening intently several times after nodding our heads a little bit, we thoroughly appreciated the amazing artwork. The history behind the chapel and Michaelangelo was truly astonishing. For your quick information and the most interesting facts of the Sistene Chapel, the ceiling depicts a timeline of Christianity and its most told stories. One of the side walls portrays the "The Last Judgement", which was absolutely incredible. All of work Michaelangelo did took nearly half of our lives to do it. After a few moments taking it in, we left to explore the St. Peter's Basillica and San Pietro Plaza.
St. Peter's Basillica is only a few blocks from the Vatican City. It is most known for the Swiss Guards, who are motionless, 284 huge columns in the square, and the statues/elaborate ceilings inside. We actually got to touch St. Peter's right foot, which apparently is the thing to do, and we saw actually confessions of a young guy.... wonder what he was confessing?! Another interesting thing was the mumified Pope John the 23rd. He slightly looked like Santa actually. After receiving directions from some friendly guards, we began the "10 minute" stroll to the Pantheon... After a good hour, quality directions from an Italian Bartender, 5 Euros sucked and gone down a vending machine, we finally made it to the Pantheon. This is the only unrestored historical momument. It was originally a chapel for Christians and Martyrs, one of the largest dome ceilings with a sunlight opening in the top, and Raffael's final resting place.
A few blocks over we went to a popular plaza named Piazza De Navona. There were 3 fountains, many streets performers comprised of singers, vendors, dancers, musicians, live statues painted in mud, and oh, there was this one mime comedian...... who instantly spotted Erin and pulled her up as his joke material. He had her mimick his hand gestures... until he raised his shirt....and pretended to pull her bra off.... Erin politely said no and ran quickly back to us. No worries, we have a video recording of everything. We strolled around the vendors and streets for a bit until dining at a semi-local italian restaurant. We ALL enjoyed dinner tonight. Its interesting to us that we have to pay so much for water most everywhere, minus some random fountains locals drink from. We took the Metro back, somewhat embarassed in our Mom jeans, tennis shoes, ratty hair, and t-shirts, as tonight the Romans were just beginning their fun filled nights.
After the bombarding the concierge with questions, getting our safe unlocked (harder than it sounds), and getting ready for our day tomorrow. It is now 1:06am, and our wake up call is ensured to ring at 4:30am so we can venture to our next destination... SORRENTO!
Ciao Bello! (Bye Beautiful - in Italian)
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