Day 33

Rome!! There is so much to do in this city that we had to fit as much as we could into 2 days. We took the local bus to the airport and then made our way onto the train to Rome. Our first stop was the Vatican City. (which is actually an independent country)

The lines were horrible everywhere so we hurried and got in line only long enough to be swayed into a tour group. A guy named Ryan from New Zealand lead our group and we had to endure all of his cheesy tour jokes. He does private tours and must make a ton of money for a few hours of work.



We got our headsets and we were off, to the Vatican Museum.





There are approximately 4 miles worth of art in this museum. They said that if you spent 1 minute at each work of art it would take you 13 years to go through the whole thing. It's huge, so we stuck to the basics.





Then we got to see the Sistine chapel. It was pretty amazing. We weren't allowed to take photos here because this company that paid for the restoration has the rights to it for a few more years, so you'll have to see it for yourselves.

Then we got to see St. Peter's Basilica—incredible and huge.



We saw Michelangelo's Pieta (which is now behind bulletproof glass since some one tried to destroy it with a hammer), Bernini's altar, and St. Peter's tomb.



We climbed a million stairs once again up a narrow winding staircase and at some parts slanting staircase,



to the top of the dome (Michelangelo's last work).



From the top there were amazing views of the city.









and we went to the souvenir shop



then we had to climb down.



We walked along the river



and then headed towards the Four Rivers fountain.



We were starving at this point and fell for a horrible tourist trap restaurant out of desperation.

Our next stop for the day was the Pantheon. It was closed when we first got there for mass so we had to wait about 20 minutes. They finally let everyone in and we got to see a choir perform there.





I wish I could see this building in the rain.

Our last stop was the Trevi Fountain. Beautiful!!



We had to hurry back in order to make the last bus back to our boat. It's hard to do it all in 2 days. There is so much to see in Rome, so much history, and sooo many tourists. It sort of felt like the only people who weren't tourists were the employees.