Woke up feeling slightly rested. The hall bathroom proved to be noisier than expected. Ugh! And our bed was so uncomfortable. Took my Aleve first thing this morning!
The hotel breakfast matched everything else. A bit of a let down. It was just bread and cereal, which would be acceptable at a hostel...but this is a hotel! I'm spoiled and want hot foods for breakfast to give me fuel for a long day!
We had 11:30 tickets to the Vatican so we left about 10:15. Good thing too, the Metro was crazy busy because it is Saturday. Luckily we planned for this and we still made it to the Vtican with time to spare! We couldn't help but feel bad for the hundreds of people in line when we got there. We just cut in front of all of them with our online tickets!
If you have never been to the Vatican museum, it's size is comparable to that of the Louvre in Paris. If you have never been to the Louvre...then just imagine a really, really big museum!! There are SOOO many galleries!! From sculptures to paintings, the Vatican museum has a bit of everything! It was extremely impressive. You start in a court yard, then go into a hall of marble busts & sculptures. From there you go into a room of statues. Then up a set of stairs to rooms of sculptures. Through another courtyard of raman baths & statues. Then a gallery of granite sculptures of animals. Then 2 more rooms of sculptures. Then a round room with huge sculptures of granite and bronze. Then through another long hallway with paintings covering walls & ceiling. Then another staircase to a section of Egyptian art & mummies. From there you go on an outside passage to another 5 galleries of painted walls & ceilings. Up a staircase to 6 rooms of Roman vases. Then down some stairs, through 2 more halls...and now you arrive at the Sistine Chapel.
Let me say, if you see Michelangelo's work sometime in your life (which I hope you do)...don't see David before the Sistine Chapel! It puts the massive painting to shame. Michelangelo was firstly a sculpture, that is for sure. The Sistine Chapel is beautiful, but it does not ellicit the admiration that David does. Also, you are being moved around like heards of cattle in the tight space...so that loses some effect too. Of course it is still a Holy place so you aren't allowed to talk, although everyone is. And they don't allow pictures....but somehow I have some that magically appeared on my camera! After all of the other art you spent 3.5 hours looking at prior to the Sistine Chapel....it is truly hard to take it all in for the infamous piece of art that it is. It was sad!
After the Sistine Chapel, there were still 3 galleries before the exit!! What an incredible collection!
When we left there was a ridiculously long line to get in. We are so happy that we bought in advance!!
We walked over to the actual Vatican and toyed with the idea of a tour. However, the line to get in there wrapped 2/3 of the way around the plaza!! I took a video of it, it takes 45 seconds to scroll the entire line!! Heck no.
We instead headed back to the other side of the city to sxee if the Colliseum was open today. No such luck. Today the sign read "Closed due to technical issues" haha! Not sure what that means. Oh well. While we were hanging out around the Colliseum we met a stray kitty!! She came right up to us and rolled over for belly pets. She didn't have fleas or look sickly, so we indulged her. Makes us a little less home sick, I think. We sure do miss our babies!!
We had dinner by the Colliseum at Cafe 183. I had some tortillini with cream and ham, and Heather had a mushroom pasta. Delicious!!
After dinner we went souvenir shopping and Heather found a wonderful Roman short sword for her weaponry collection!! Its simply gorgeous. She is beyond ecstatic with it.
With all of our money spent, we headed back to the hotel early. We stopped by the internet cafe to look up some info we need for Greece then settled in for the night.
Rome is simply amazing!! There is so much history and so many reminders of the ancient world!! This is easily one of the top cities we've seen.
Tomorrow we leave for Naples! Which means Pompei & Capri. :)
Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather
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