Thursday morning we had our alarms set early, as we were to meet our guide for our Vatican tour at 7:20 am. The breakfast spread opened about 3 minutes before our taxi arrived, allowing us to grab a croissant, and me, a cup of coffee as well. This was a bad choice on my part, as I should have known better. Coffee and cab drivers should never mixed. I spilled the coffee on myself no less than 30 seconds after I got in the cab and got to display brown stains on the front of my bright blue pants the rest of the day. Lesson learned.
Waiting for our tour to start
The Vatican tour started a bit crazy. There were many groups there already that early, and our guide, John, said that there would be lots of people in the Sistine Chapel, but not nearly as many as if we had waited during the time it was open to the public. We by-passed all the museums and went straight to the Sistine Chapel. A few parts of the tour were very overwhelming to me, and the Sistine Chapel was the first one of those instances. It nearly broke me down as I walked in, and saw the beautiful artwork, and felt the history that the chapel held. We were only allowed to stay in the room about 20 minutes, but luckily we were given a handout explaining the ceiling of the chapel, and each of the parts of the Michelangelo work. The rest of the work we were on our own to decipher. Unfortunately, taking pictures in the Sistine Chapel is forbidden. After the Sistine Chapel, we went through the Vatican museums, which were, quite frankly, dull as can be. We were raced through them, with barely enough time for pictures. I was anxious to get to St. Peter's Basilica. The highlight of this part of the tour were the Raphael rooms, where there were some beautiful artwork from the painter, Raphael.
My favorite painting from Raphael....the angel freeing Peter from imprisonment.
A close-up from the painting.
Another famous Raphael painting.
Finally we were headed to St. Peter's Basilica, which, I cannot explain in words. This is in fact the biggest Catholic church in the world, and it is absolutely beautiful. With our tour we spent a good half hour in the church, and afterwards, Aaron and I went back in for more.
There is so much to say about St. Peter's Basilica! The statues were amazingly large but detailed. There was Mass going on, which we missed by only 5 minutes or so. If I'd known the times beforehand, I would have drug Aaron to Mass there. They had 6 or 8 confessionals setup for people wanting to go to confession. Aaron encouraged me to go, but I told him Reconciliation is such an emotional thing for me anyways, as soon as I stepped in that confessional I'd be a bawling mess. St. John Paul II's sarcophagus was there, and there were many people crowded around it praying and taking pictures.
St. John Paul II's tomb
The Pieta was another crowded area of the church.....the famous sculpture of Michelangelo. We visited the crypt, where many past popes are buried, and we saw the area above where St. Peter is buried. This is another area of the Vatican where picture taking is forbidden.
If I could have stayed in this church all day, I would have. It was such an amazing experience. After we left the basilica, we got some outside pictures, and then headed to the temporary Vatican post office and sent a few postcards to our loved ones.
We left the country of the Vatican City and headed north, to the Castel Sant' Angelo. Once we were nearly there I pleaded with Aaron to head back to the hotel for a nap, as the early rise time and the long emotional day were making it hard to keep my eyes open and on my feet. We grabbed some lunch at a place that wasn't anything special and then gelato for dessert. Chocolate and caramel for me, and Pineapple and Coconut for Aaron. Yum. We got back to the hotel around 3pm and the next thing we knew it was after 6pm. Naps are allowed on vacation, right? We skyped with the boys, who seemed to be having a great time with Aunt Cori and the girls. I believe they were getting ready to take a nap, as they had just gotten back from swimming at the pool. After talking to them for a bit, we headed out for dinner, stopping in one of the local eateries off the beaten path. This place was called Urbana 46.
Their food was amazing, as well as their "vino della casa". We splurged for dessert, and walked around the town when we were done. I wanted to get some pictures of the Colosseum lit up at night.
After our evening stroll, we called it a night.
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