Saturday 7.07.07

Vatican City

We started our day in Vatican City...and no, even though it is considered another country, you don't need to show your passport, nor do you need to go through customs.


We left the hotel and boarded the bus which left us at the border of Vatican City. It was a bit hot out and having to wear a blouse the covered my arms completely made it feel suffocatingly hot.

We made our way in and our first stop was the Vatican Museum. There were a ton of paintings, mostly like the paintings we had seen for the previous three weeks. But there were still interesting. In every room there were floor to ceiling paintings, mostly scenes from Italian history or of the Catholic Church.



Of course, you can't go to the Vatican and not see the Sistine Chapel. Here's the only thing about the Sistine Chapel: it's like the Hotel California, you can check out whenever you want, but you can't ever leave. We walked around for a while, with necks craned to the ceiling looking for the "fingers".

After walking through a ton of hallways and still not seeing the fingers, we decided to take a break and sit on bench and watch people go by. After sitting for a few minutes, I remembered that in the Agony and the Ecstacy, Michelangelo's painting was in a large room with a pulpit, not in a hallway. So we soldiered on, getting more and more lost within the chapel. Apparently, the Sistine Chapel is more than just one room; it's the entire building. We ended going through room after room of paintings and even ended up going through the modern art exhibit where they had a modern version of the pieta.

After what seemed like 4 hours, we finally made it to the "room". It was so crowd and I had a hard time finding the "fingers". Thanks to the binoculars that I lugged with me, I was able to see the fingers close up. It was great seeing the ceiling, but I have to say that if the 40,000 other people hadn't been in the room at the same time, it would've been a lot better. As much as I wanted to take a look at all the parts of the ceiling, the crowds made it unbearable.

Leaving the chapel is as hard as finding it. We wondered around, again, looking for the exit and ended up in a fenced in garden. We wondered around some more and eventually made it out by the Vatican museum exit. By this time, we were starving, so we dragged our malnurished bodies into a restaurant across the street. The people welcomed us and encouraged us to "mangia". A kind young man carried our trays to the table and brought us crushed ice. We felt like queens, that is until we got the check. Our food, which wasn't that good, came up to 81 euros ( $110). Now, keep in mind that I said that we brought our food to the table on trays... so needless to say the meal was not worth 81 euros. We were 4 angry women for a couple of hours after that.

After we were robbed, we decided to try getting into St. Peter's Bascillica. But the lines were so out of control and the sun was so hot, we decided to leave and try again later. Of course we didn't know how to get back to the hotel... we only knew the number of the bus. We chased down the bus and eventually made it back the metro station. The streets of Rome are so choppy and I had to go to the bathroom in the worst way. I just knew that my bladder was going to explode. But like the big girl that I am, I was able to hold it.

At the metro station, Marie and I decided to stop and have a glass of wine and talk. Keighley and Tiffany, who by this time had become fast friends, went back to the hotel to take a nap and watch tv. Right near the hotel, we found a restaurant that had french fries and waiters who cared to serve people. We sat outside reflecting on the past three weeks and wishing that we had done more together. It hadn't been until Thursday that we got to do something together. During our visit to the museo dell Opera in Florence, we decided to let everyone walk ahead and we just caught up. It was nice.

After the drink and fries, we were summoned by Tiffany and Keighley. We decided to head back out and try to get back to St. Peter's Basillica, the bone museum, Bocca della Verita (on the right), and a few other places. Nothing was open or should I say, everything closed early that day. So we decided to go back to the Pantheon and find some food. By this time, everything was funny to us. We had a massive case of the giggles. All was good with the world.

But as much as we loved Rome, we were all ready to go home. We talked about the food we wanted to eat. We were so close... only 24 hours to go.