Yesterday our first stop was the Vatican. I was most excited for this. The line to get in wrapped around the outside walls and it has been sooo hot here so waiting kind of sucked, but we make the best of it!
When we go to these visits, we always switch from Stefania to a local guide. She attempted to explain why to us. It has something to do with her license and the tour company. She can give us historical info on the bus and technical info in front of places, but can't give historical info outside - they have to switch to a local tour guide.
Our guide for the Vatican was an Italian woman named Sylvia. We entered the Vatican museum first and saw tapestries and frescos all leading up to the amazing Sistine Chapel. My goodness, it was unreal to be in there. It was packed - wall to wall people. No pictures allowed but of course most travelers are disrepectful and were taking them anyway. Even as they were making announcements not to.
The Last Judgement is a sight to see. It is such a familiar image but when it is right in front of you, you can stare at it for hours and probably catch something new everytime. Seeing things like this really make me believe that people like Michaelangelo were magical. Legit. Because HOW did he do that?
Next we went to St. Peter's Basilica which was my favorite part. The Basilica is MASSIVE! It goes on forever. The ceilings are ornate and the statues and mosaics are everywhere. Everything that looks like a painting in the basilica is actual a mosaic. Little tiny pieces of tile making the most detailed images all throughout the place. Mind boggling!
After the basilica we walked out into St. Peter's Square - again, simply unreal to be there. We saw the pope's windows open and I was lucky enough to pass the Swiss Guard when they were changing so I took a video of it.
We then went into the Vatican gift shop for lunch and shopping. The shop blesses any item and actually delivers it for free to your hotel room! I bought a gold crucifix and have been wearing it ever since. They also sell stamps and have their own mailbox there since the Vatican is it's own state. So you can write, stamp and mail cards right there and it will be a Vatican stamp with all Vatican postage on it. I mailed a card home from there. And several friends and family will get postcards sent from my Rome hotel with Vatican stamps. Fun!
After the Vatican, the day kind of took a stupid turn. Remember I mentioned going to a university in Rome? Well, it turned out to be this shabby community-ish college and they legit just took us on a boring campus tour for 3 hours... Showing us their computer labs and library and things that meant nothing to our lives. If it was some old historical campus I guess it may have been cooler but it was not at all. THEN, the worst part was we had to sit through this little play/recital that some of the students put on for us.
I understand they worked hard to do what they did (sing, recite poetry, play music, do some skits) but they did 90% of it IN Italian and none of us knew what was going on. We were there soooo long, all afternoon basically. It was just boring. Everyone thought so. Stefania had told us this was the first time they included this stop on the trip and I hope they got the drift that it was an anticlimactic end to an awesome day.
A few of the Italian girls got on our bus afterwards to go get coffee with some people on our group. Mostly the boys. Lame. We opted out of that and went back to the hotel to freshen up. We had decided back at the university when we were all standing around bored out of our minds to all go to dinner - all 10 girls from Kean on the trip. We have all been split up mostly as we get free time on the tour. So we did an Italy girl night.
After sort of getting lost trying to find a neighborhood to eat dinner in that Stefania had recommended, we ended up turning around and going back into the center of the city where we were all pretty familiar with. We ate at this lovely spot in Piazza Nuovo, I want to say it was called Bernini Grill? Something like that. I have the card somewhere. But the waiter was sooooo nice. His name was Ocho and he took great care of us. I got gnocchi (couldn't leave Italy without it) and it was delicious! And we got so many free things, including dessert and then the owner (who apparently is the second richest man in Rome) came out and gave us all 10% cards to his shop.
He also told us he was an extra in New Moon. LOL!
Ocho took pics with us, gave us his Facebook URL, and walked all 10 of us to a cab. But his friends were having a birthday party at a restaurant right next to his and he walked by with all us girls and his friends started cheering and taking pics. It was so funny!
So the day at the weird university ended with a lovely dinner. No gelato yesterday though. Travesty!
Today was long, hot, soooooo much walking and we're just pooped - but still loving it! We had free time all morning until 2pm-is so we went on our own to the San Angelo Palaca (amazing views) and then no lie walked all the way across town to the area near the Colesseum. There is soooo much traffic in Rome so walking is the best bet. We ate lunch at a cute outside restaurant (had caprese salad and pizza with fresh veggies mmmmm!) and then made it to our Colesseum tour.
Stopped for gelato. #9? (I think)
Double scoop! Pistachio and Biscotti! Heaven!
Our tour guide for the Colesseum was a short Italian guy named Antonio from Naples. He was so cute! We spent the rest of the afternoon there and in the Roman Forum. You can't honestly believe these things until you see them. And Rome is just nuts. Its like NYC with traffic and a ton of people but then all of a sudden you turn a corner and there's some big excavation site with ruins.
After those visits we had the option of going to the Pantheon with Gianluca. We were sooooo tired but Gianluca is not going on the extention trip to Sorrento with us so this was our last opportunity to spend time with him. There was some big concert/political demonstration in the Pantheon square when we got there and we couldn't go inside, so we decided to just say bye to Gianluca then.
He was so sweet! He told us to be well and take care and he asked us to take a picture with him. Earlier we were discussing whether he'd think we were total creeps for wanting a pic but he wanted one! We took pics and hugs and said ciao! Then for the next 20 minutes we devised a plan on how we could continue to stalk his life because we love him so much.
After we left Gianluca (sad face) we just walk aroud and went into shops until we couldn't feel our feet. OMG, we walked so much. We got sandwiches to go and got a taxi back to the hotel for the night. We are off to Sorrento for an overnight trip tomorrow and have a 5:45am alarm. Ugh!
I just have to mention, the weather has beenn spectacular. Sunny and warm every single day.
I've wanted to purchase internet minutes this whole trip but just haven't had the time. I can't wait to share pics with everyone I know!
Off to bed now. Should have been sleeping awhile ago. Ciao ciao!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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