I got a good night’s sleep last night. All of my roommates
were very quiet, even the ones that arrived later at night. I got up early and
grabbed some of the hostel’s free breakfast, aka chocolate filled croissants
and chocolate from the coffee machine, and headed out. I took the metro to the
Vatican, and went straight to the Museums since my ticket was for 9 am. I got
to pass a lot of people who were buying their tickets today, so I was really
glad that I bought my ticket online. I didn’t end up meeting up with Ashley,
the girl I met yesterday, and her mom, but I am sort of glad because I got to
move through the museums at my own pace. Overall, I spent a little over 2 hours
in the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Mostly, the sheer size
overwhelmed me. The Vatican owns a lot of art and historical artifacts, and
there was a lot to see. I enjoyed
the ancient Greek and Roman sculptures and statues, as well as going through
the old Papal apartments that are all completely frescoed. The Sistine Chapel
didn’t really impress me like I expected it to. It is not all that large, and I
didn’t like the frescoes as much as I did the ones in the old Papal apartments.
I didn’t spend much time there, though I did stop in the café outside for a
quick croissant snack.
After the museums, I headed to St. Peter’s square. I walked
around the outside so that I could enter through the center and get the full
effect. I didn’t really get the effect I wanted, but that is because of the
construction going on, and the area blocked off for the building of the Belen
(nativity scene). It is still an amazing space. And St. Peter’s Basilica is
beautiful too. I took my time wandering through the square and taking pictures
of everything. I wanted to find the marker on the ground that is in the Angels
and Demons book and movie, but the area around the obelisk was blocked off for
the Christmas tree and nativity scene. After I had taken all the pictures I
wanted to, I headed into the Basilica. I was directed into the line for the
Cupola, even though I wanted to leave that for last. Turns out that was a good
thing, since the Cupola stairs exit into the Basilica. The payment options for
climbing to the Cupola were 5 euros to climb all 551 stairs, or 7 euros to take
an elevator and then climb 320 stairs. I decided to pay 5 euros, because it
didn’t seem worth 2 euros to only cut out 231 stairs. The climb wasn’t too bad,
though I was definitely winded when I got to the top. The views were worth it
though. You can see pretty much the entire center of the city, as well as a
beautiful birds-eye view of St. Peter’s square. I took my time looking at
everything, since I knew the walk down wouldn’t be very fun. In St. Peter’s
Basilica, a lot of areas a roped or blocked off to the public. You can see
them, but you can’t walk through them. This made it difficult for me to get my
pictures of the organ, but I did get some of the organ in the Chapel of the
Choir. The Basilica is very beautiful and the architecture is really
incredible. I wish I could’ve spent more time there, but there weren’t too many
places to sit and my legs needed a break after the climbs up and down all those
stairs. I got to go see the Gaudi temporary exhibit after I left the Basilica.
It was right off of the square in an adjacent building, and it was free. There
wasn’t too much information I didn’t already know, but it was a really cool
set-up and they had a video of when the Pope went to Sagrada Familia and
declared it a Basilica. It was small, but I really enjoyed it.
After stopping in a café for some pasta al forno (aka baked
ziti) I hoped on the metro again to head down to the Roman Forum. Once I
arrived, I walked around for almost an hour, around the entire perimeter of the
Forum, only to discover that there was a strike today, once I finally found an
entrance. I was so frustrated, because I had already paid for the combo ticket
at the Colosseum, so I stomped over to the Colosseum to complain. However, they
were also on strike, so I just lost out completely. I was really tired and
aggravated, so I decided to take the metro instead of walk back to my hostel.
On my way back, I calmed down, and decided to go to the Spanish steps on my
way, so as not to waste my whole afternoon. They weren’t very impressive, but I
got to see the sunset over the city, and that was pretty amazing. On my walk
back to my hostel, I ran into Greg, Ian, and James, three guys from my program
in Madrid. They had just arrived from Berlin, and were heading to the Yellow
Hostel to try to book some rooms. We chatted for a little while about our
various travel dilemmas, and then parted ways.
My hostel advertised a free pizza and wine night tonight, so
I decided to go and take advantage of it since I am low on spendable cash. It
was at a pizzeria across the street, and we got three small square pieces of
pizza (Ledo pizza size) and a little plastic cup of red wine. Definitely not
filling, but I did run into a couple other Americans that I had met on my first
night at the hostel. We ended up going to dinner at the restaurant next door,
and having some really good spaghetti and white wine. I ended up spending more
than I probably would have on my own, but I had a nice time. Afterwards, we
went back to the hostel and watched The Sweetest Thing, with Cameron Diaz and
Christina Applegate, and drinking some Lemoncello. I don’t know why everyone
was raving about Lemoncello, it just tastes like lemon-flavored vodka.
Supposedly it’s an after dinner drink here, but they must mix it with
something. After chatting with my new roommates from South Africa, I took a
shower and went to bed. Later than planned, but I knew I had a flight in the
morning to sleep on.
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