Day 22/8 - Rome and Vatican City

So Tuesday we got up early because we needed to be at the Vatican by 8:30ish. I was so excited to go to the Vatican!! So we get there (after taking the bus there and our driver not letting us off when we pushed the button) and I text our friends to see where they were. Turns out they had yet to even get on the bus to come, and they were clear on the other side of the city! So we go in (we had reserved our tickets online, highly recommend that!) and we head straight for the Sistine Chapel because I heard it was better to go there in the morning and then backtrack through everything else. So glad we did that because while there were a lot of people there then, it was nothing like later on. So we are about to go into the Sistine Chapel and I see that you can’t take pictures in there. Bummer. But I took some anyway. We sat along the edge of the chapel for about 30 minutes and my dad was telling us about all the pictures and what they are depictions of and such. And I sat there taking pictures discretely =] After that, we texted our friends again, and they had just gotten there! This was like 1 ½ hours after they wanted to be here. So we just went through and continued on with the rest of the Vatican Museum, backtracking to things we had zoomed through, and going and seeing everything new. All in all, we were in the Vatican Museum for 4ish hours. I was really hoping we’d see the Pope somewhere, but alas, no Pope for us. We randomly ran into our friends right before they went into the Sistine Chapel, so we went through and waited for them on the other side, and then we all exited together. We then of course went to St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square! I was so excited!!! Walking into St. Peter’s Basilica was just amazing. It is huge!!! And beautiful! So we spent 2 hours there, just walking around and taking it all in. Afterwards, my dad mentioned going up to the cupola (dome) and I wanted to go! So we walk over, and it was kind of pricy, so my dad let just me go up there. So I took the elevator up there, and you then walk into the inside of the dome. That was incredible! Being up so close to the paintings on the ceiling, and then looking down and seeing everyone who was down below. You don’t realize how large it is till you are up there looking down at everyone else! I spent probably 30 minutes there, and then was going to head back down, not realizing you could walk up 320 stairs and go on the outside of the top of the cupola!! So I did, and wow, that was amazing! It was so beautiful up there, you could see all of Rome!! I took a lot of pictures and a video of the 360 view from the top. I just couldn’t believe it. I spent about 30 minutes there as well, then headed down. I went down, found my parents and then we found my siblings and our friends. My dad was like, what took so long, and I was like, I was just taking pictures and such. I was like, why, how long was I gone? And they were like, an hour! Oops, I didn’t realize I had been gone so long! So we were there for about 7 ½ hours! I had wanted to go to the Borghese Museum, but we didn’t have enough time =[ After the Vatican, we took a bus to the Pantheon and saw that. Then we were hungry, but tired of pasta and pizza, so we went traipsing around the city looking for McDonalds =] We found one and ate there, then walked over to the Trevi Fountain. Wow was that beautiful! We threw in our monies (one for a swift return to Rome, two to find your husband…I threw two =) ) and then we just hung out for an hour or more. It was really awesome to just chill there and enjoy the scenery. We left once it started getting dark, and we ran over to the Spanish steps to see those, and then we had to go. It was past 9, but my dad didn’t really believe that the metro was closing at 9, so we walked to it anyway and sure enough, it was closed, but they had a night bus that would stop at all the metro stops, so we got on that and home we went. That was the end of Rome!