When in Rome: Day 2

June 22nd

Today I had to pull myself out of bed, but it was easier knowing I was going to Vatican City! We had breakfast at the hotel (free breakfast is a must for me when choosing a hotel.) It was pretty good, we really lucked out with out hotel (Thank you to our Travel Agent Carol! If you ever need one, she is the best!) I am pretty sure the hot chocolate was really melted chocolate. It was very comparable to the hot chocolate I have had at Max Brenners (Chocolate by the Bald Man) in Manhattan. Soooo good. After breakfast we learned that the public transportation workers were on strike so we would have to take a cab to the Vatican. Go figure they go on strike while we are here. When we got to the Vatican we had to wait a little for our tour guide. While we waited I had one of the local (who was selling scarfs) come up and tell me that my shirt would not fly to get into St. Peters Basilica. The Vatican has a strict dress code to enter it's chapels, men and women must have their knees and shoulder covers. I figured if my outfit was good enough for the Mormons it would be good enough for the Catholics. So I asked a tour guide and she said it was close to the line but I would be fine. So I breathed a sigh of relief. But since the scarf was kind of pretty I asked how much. He said 10 Euro. Heck no! I thought I could probably get one that is similar in NYC for $5 so I was paying more than that. So I told him that was way to much so I would pass and I walked away. He came back up a few times offering lower prices 7 and 5 euros. I said no and offered 4 and her finally took it. I was pretty excited to get a scarf for less than the asking price. I usually feel bad doing that with people, especially from people we see when we go on cruises. But Mike reminded me that this is not a poor country, there $ is stronger than ours, so I felt no shame i what I had done, I was quite proud of myself.

Shortly after that we met our tour guide and were put in our group of 20 people. It was great how the group was small then they passed out a headset so we could hear our tour guide without standing right beside her. That was even better. We skipped the HUGE line of people who had been waiting for an hour and a half to get into the Vatican Museum and went in before it opened. We went to the restroom without waiting in line and started our tour before the place was even opened. It was great! We saw so many neat things. Sculptures build in 300 B.C., hand woven tapestries, fresco paintings and pieces of art I remembered from humanities.

After spending 2 hours walking through the museums we finally entered the Sistine Chapel, that was really cool. I learned a lot about the meaning behind each of the 9 rectangle paintings in the center of the ceiling. They are known as the 9 scenes of Genesis it starts with a pictures of the creation of the world, then the famous "touch of Life" painting where God is touching Adams finger. Then shows some scenes of Moses. Then on the outside triangles are pictures of the prophets... people like Isaiah. Then on the side of the walls are pictures of the ancestors of Christ. The wall behind where the alter is was also painted by Michealangelo.  It is known as "The Last Judgement" you can see one side of the painting has the righteous being lifted up in the last days while the other shows the wicked being drug down to "hell" by demons. Pretty interesting stuff. You aren't suppose to take pictures.... but Mike snuck a few, and I was happy he did. It was interesting they had guards in there and they would every few minutes yell "Silence" but in Italian. It was interesting to see a sacred place to the Catholics be put on display for people who didn't respect it's holiness to them.... It maybe was like opening a mormon temple up to tourists. 

 Anyways after that we headed right into St. Peters Basilica. I was in amaze at how big and grand it was. I have been inside many beautiful, big Catholic churches but this one was for sure the most grand and spectacular one I have ever seen. I was impossible to capture it's beauty in a photograph. I thought it was really cool to see the tomb of Peter the Apostle of Christ. I also loved seeing all the work done by Bernini inside the Basilica. After our tour guide showed us the highlights of the Basilica the tour ended.

Our friends Ben and Cynda visited Rome a week before we arrived. While they were there they hid us a note and send us clues to help up find it. We figured out that it was on the top of St. Peters but didn't know where it was. So we waiting in line to go up to the top of the big dome. We too an elevator up part of the way but then had to walk up 320 very, very narrow spiral stairs. It was a little tight but once out on top of the dome it was clear that the walk was well worth it as the view of Rome could not be beat. It was like going to the Top of the Rock or the Empire State Building while in Manhattan. After enjoying the beautiful scenery we headed back down the steps. That was actually worse than going up them, it was like climbing down a mountain where you have no choice to look down and see how far you can fall if you fell... I am pretty sure it took me longer than most people to get down as my fear of falling really kicked in.

When we got back down to the area where the doom starts (it is a flat walking area with restrooms and gift shops and some views of Rome) we started looking for the note Ben and Cynda hid for us. When we finally found it you would have thought we had won the lottery. We were so excited. After reading the note we decided it was such a cool thing that we would leave one for our friends Nicki and McKay who will be visiting Rome in a week or so. Good Luck guys!!

After climbing down from the top of St. Peter's we spend a little more time in the Basilica on our own. We went to see all of the tombs of the old popes who have passed. When we were done we walked though St. Peters Square taking it all in. I loved my trip to the Vatican. It was amazing!! We walked as far as we could then caught a taxi back to our hotel. 

We rested and took a long nap... we didn't wake up till 7:30! We went out to a mediocre dinner that night so we decided to search high and low for the gelato place Mikes parents recommended. We walked in giant circles looking for it but once we found it we knew all that walking had been worth it. They have over 40 flavors, it took us 15 minutes to decide what we wanted, and let me tell you it was truly delicious! I got Oreo Biscotti, white chocolate and milk chocolate with creme on top.... YUM!! Mike got oreo biscotti, creme and another flavor he has already forgotten.... at any rate we were both in heaven. 

After our gelato we walked back to the trevi fountain to toss our coins in. We also were still not satisfied after dinner and wanted some really good pizza. So we found a pizza place that someone from our hotel recommend and had a slice for a midnight snack.... it was really midnight at that point, we got a late start to our night. After wards we were stuffed and ready to sit down so we headed back to our hotel for a good night sleep.