When we bought our Eurail train passes we were given a free city bus tour and we chose to use it here. Its the same double decker bus tour I took in Athens. We were given headphones for an audio tour along the way. Most things we saw we had already visited yesterday and so we mostly just took advantage of the free ride to Vatican City.
Going into St. Peter's Square I really didn't know what to expect. As with most things over here my whole idea of them is based off of movies or pictures I have seen. Of course, with movies especially, the scale is changed and feeling isn't there. The square is beautiful and quite large, while all the while being so much smaller than expected.
From the square we went through a scanner and into St Peter's Basilica. It was definitely a "wow" moment. Everything is so beautiful and ornate. The walls, ceiling, floors. Arches, sculptures and paintings. Everywhere you turn there is something beautiful to see. While inside we also went downstairs to where the popes are buried and to where St Peter's body is. Up some stairs we came to the entrance to the dome on top of the basilica.
"Caution: After the elevator there are still 325 stairs to the top"
We didn't take the elevator so it was 544 steps. Ouch. And the higher you go the more narrow the stairways get and the walls start to slant. We were walking inside a dome after all. Finally at the top we got an amazing 360 degree view of the whole city.
Back down the stairs, and a walk outside to the Vatican museum.
We couldn't leave without seeing the Sistine chapel. Most of the museum leading up to the chapel was all "'ooo' and 'ahhh' and 'wow'". So many beautiful, intricate pieces or art, sculpture, furniture, etc..
When we finally made it into the Chapel it was so much more than I expected. So incredibly beautiful. Thinking of one man doing all of that is mind blowing. Every bit of the walls and ceiling are painted. The arches, the "drapes", everything. Everything apparently, except the white of Adam's eye which is left natural. Or so I overheard.
Moving out of the Chapel we looked through many more halls of the museum before leaving, but only leaving because it was closing. My favorite of the other halls was obviously Egypt. Just like in the Greek museum. This time I saw an actual mummy UNWRAPPED!!!! How amazing is that! I obviously squealed like a child on Christmas and took lots of pictures, which technically wasn't allowed. But I did that in the chapel too... Rebel, right here!
By the time we got out of the museum and back to St Peters Square it was dark out so we took a few more pictures, left to walk across the river Tiber and took more pictures and then finally got dinner! Pasta night! And of course it was delicious pasta.
More walking, some window shopping and a few stops for gifts or souvenirs, a stop at the Trevi fountain and Spanish steps again, continue walking and finally back at the hostel.
Now that we have finished repacking again it's bed time! You can expect pictures to come quite soon. Hopefully.
Tomorrow we are off to Napoli and Pompeii!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment