Vatican City

The next day we signed up for a tour of the Vatican. The previous night I had asked to guy at the front desk if the tour left from the hostel and he told me it did. The next morning when I signed up the people informed me that it didn’t leave from the hostel instead it just started in Vatican City. Dylan and I had about 20 minutes to get from the hostel to the Vatican. We ended up making it just in time but it was a little stressful. We first toured the Vatican museum, which I was glad we got a tour guide for because it is gigantic. All of the artwork was amazing and I particularly liked the Hall of Maps. At the end of the museum the guide took us into the Sistine Chapel. No pictures are allowed in there but I was able to sneak a few just for my readers!  J The Sistine Chapel was absolutely amazing. It’s unbelievable that Michelangelo was able to paint it almost entirely by himself.

Next we were able to go into St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s gorgeous and HUGE. An interesting fact that I learned it that the cupola that sits atop of the basilica is actually not attached. It is so heavy that it just sits on top and cannot be moved.

After touring Vatican City we went and had lasagna at a little restaurant. Not very many people in Rome spoke English so ordering was kind of difficult. Next we walked over to the Castel Sant’ Angelo built to hold the remains of Emperor Hadrian. We didn’t go inside we just walked by it and took some pictures.

. Both of us were exhausted and we had a hard time figuring out the bus system so we slowly made our way back to the hostel. At the hostel we took a nap and woke up about 3 hours later. We decided to go out to a nice dinner, just the two of us, and our tour guide from the first day recommended a nice area we could go to. We walked around for a while and finally decided on a little Italian restaurant. I had spaghetti with meat sauce and Dylan ordered seafood pasta. We also ordered a bottle of wine. After dinner we went to a bar that was by the train station. The atmosphere was kind of weird but Dylan and I made friends with the bartender and he gave us quite a few free drinks. He said it was his last night working there so that’s probably why. He was a really nice guy and he was great at bartending. He would do a bunch of tricks and throw the glasses around. I was impressed. Finally we made our way back home.