The Vatican, St. Peter's, The Pantheon, and Gelato
Trip Start
May 20, 2010
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20
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Trip End
Jun 10, 2010
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Monday, June 7, 2010
I was blown away by the amount of stuff in the Vatican museums! Art from every time period, paintings, sculptures... My mind hurt by the time we went through everything! [If you ever go, remember this, the place is built like a friggin' maze! Sarah and I ended up outside after being through about 1/6 of the place! Then, when we had someone let us back in... we had to wind around for an hour following signs for the Sistine Chapel before we got to go inside.]
It was beautiful, but honestly, it would have been a lot more impressive by itself. After going through the rest of the place and being bombarded visually with gold and paintings and marble and just so MUCH stuff, it wasn't nearly what I was expecting after all the build up.
After we left the chapel, we went around "city" to St. Peter's Basillica, which I enjoyed much more than the museums. It was HUGE. I have no way to relate how big it is. You'd have to see it yourself! My favorite part of it was finding out that the giant alter in the center would fit in the tiny compartment in the dome! And learning that the 'little' letters running around the ceiling were actually TEN FEET TALL!
By the time we had seen the Vatican, we were ready for a nap, so back to the hostel we went. But, when we got there, it was waaaay too hot to nap. (No air conditioning!!!!) So, we decided to go see the Pantheon and go shopping. Which was exactly what we did.
The Pantheon was impressive. The dome is an architectural feet. And it's open at the top! Sarah said it was snowing last time they went! Once we left there, we wandered the surrounding area and explored the shops and I felt like I saw the real Rome. Tiny shops, little restaurants tucked in alleyways. Ivy covered houses with rooftop gardens... I really liked that area without all the tourists. For dinner, we found an AMAZING little restaurant and made friends with our waiter, Georgio. I ordered grilled salmon and it was quite possibly the best seafood I have ever had... After a very pleasant meal, we wandered around some more and spent our last couple eurocoins on gelato (Italian ice cream) at every shop we passed. (In other words, on every corner!) Then it was time to head back to our hostel and get some sleep because in the morning we literally have a train to catch!
