day eleven: Rome

The next morning we got to sleep in a tiny bit (I think until 8am) and then headed back into the city, but this time to Vatican City which actually the world's smallest country. First we walked from the metro over to Saint Peter's Square and milled around for a bit, to take in the enormity of the place.



This is a picture of me in Saint Peter's Square with the Basilica behind me. More about that later on.

After stopping at the square, we walked around the country to get to the Vatican Museum entrance. Luckily we didn't have to wait to get in but once we got in, it went pretty slow getting to the Sistine Chapel. It seemed like it took forever to get there because we kept going through all these small rooms with no idea how much farther we had to go. But once we got there, we forgot all about how long we waited. It was simply amazing. The details and effects on the ceiling we breathtaking. Parts of it actually looked three dimensional (like some of the columns looked real). It was amazing that one person did all that.



It was truly amazing. You weren't allowed to take pictures of it, but I managed to anyway (and so did everyone else that was in there too). The hard part was to get a steady picture since you couldn't use a flash (although Quinn accidentally did and almost got us kicked out. Twice. haha).

After we rushed through the rest of the museum, a bunch of us headed to find lunch since we were absolutely starving. We found a good restaurant just a few blocks away. It was really good. We split some pizzas, pasta, and lasagna. And this time, the bread was included. We also got really great potatoes as part of the appetizer.

After lunch we went back to Saint Peter's Square and waited in line to get into the Basilica. We ended up waiting in the wrong line once we got past security and therefore wasted half an hour (we were in line to get up to the top, which we definitely didn't have time for). Oh well. That's what happens. Anyway, we eventually got into the church and it was awesome. I have never seen anything so amazing in my whole life. First of all, it was massive. It just kept going and going. And it was beautiful. The ceilings, domes, artwork, everything was amazing.



This is a view of the main section and the big dome. The Pieta was in there as well which was really cool to see. We also saw where St. Peter's bones are (the church is literally built on top of him). It was a very impressive place and I'm really glad I spent time there.



Here is me in front of the Basilica overlooking Saint Peter's Square and the the obelisk in the middle.

Originally, we were going to head back into Rome after going to the Basilica, but it was getting late and we were just exhausted and hot and tired. so, we bought some gelati, a couple souvenirs and walked to the metro station. All in all, I liked Rome, but it was far too hot and loud and crowded for me to have fallen in love with it. I really did like it though. It was cool to see all the scooters everywhere and the feel of a big important and historical and old city. I will definitely go back because I didn't get to see nearly all of the things I wanted to (like the Piazza Navona, the mouth of truth, the Castel San Angelo and stuff like that).

When we got back to the campsite, we all hung out at the pool until dinner. There really wasn't anything else you could do to cool down. If you took a shower, you would be sweaty again before you even dried off. It was gross. Anyway, the pool was nice. It was really funny too because the lifeguards started teasing Quinn quite a bit. It was hilarious. I think also it was around this time in the trip that our whole group finally felt like one big dysfunctional family. It was a nice feeling. That evening, we all hung out and played more drinking games and danced and all that.

next day...

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