.. musei vaticani any one? ..

on day one our hotel concierge told us that the catholics were on holiday which meant that the vatican and all the churches were closed for holiday. but they opened on friday, our last full day in rome. so we scheduled ourselves in for the vatican on friday.  

we woke up early on friday got ready for the day and went and had breakfast in the hotel. not bad, but they cook odd and they charge way too much. then we were off. we walked the 3 miles to the vatican and found a huge surprise. a line, that followed the wall of the vatican all the way around, estimated at 2 1/2 hour wait. we found another tour guide and hopped on the band wagon. we left on a tour shortly after and ended up with a semi decent experience.


{ticket }
we did good at first, the girl was great knew a bunch of stuff. we saw some raphael and michelangelo and amazing art.


{raphael : transfiguration of christ}

then it got crazy. we walked out to these posters about the sistine chapel, since you aren't allowed to talk in there, and it was about 100 degrees with the humidity and I was in a maxi skirt. so hot! the vatican has strict rules about dress code, they don't allow bare knees or shoulders. all i have are bermuda shorts so my knees were all out, so we went the skirt route. we sat out there in the sun for about 40 minutes while we talked about the sistine chapel. then we started towards it, we had to go through a few halls. but then plans changed, we found out that the hall we thought would be open was closed so we got bottlenecked with them and everyone else.


{Lacoon}

we made it into a courtyard where i got to witness my second dream, Lacoon. it was beautiful. i was so excited. then came the worst thing ever, i have never felt more claustrophobic in my life. we were stuck in the hall of muses with about 3,000 other people. no air conditioning, a bunch of people and no water i was almost passing out. i freaked and grabbed cody, we got a fan and i started fanning myself. as soon as we caught a space we paused. it was awful. next we went through the hall of illusion and the hall of tapestries.



{hall of illusion}

it was beautiful. and then the chapel. you go down a narrowing stairwell, about 4 flights down the width of two people standing side by side. and then you turn left up two stairs and boom you are inside the sistine chapel.


{sistine chapel, we weren't supposed to take this picture.. whoops!}

it was kind of anti-climatic but it was beautiful even still. we walked inside and found a little space we could stop and admire the beauty around us. we saw the wonderful fresco paintings all over the ceiling and the walls. it is a glorious work. truely. after we stayed for a few we walked out to St. Peter's Basilica.



{it opened to this.. huge!}

we walked around and checked out some of the alcoves, we did see the pieta - the first statue michelangelo did, masterpiece. we ended up at st. peter's altar. st peter is buried underneath it behind a tile mosaic wall. they don't allow you down there but you can see if from the top. pretty big.


{st. peter's altar}


{us in st. peter's}

after this we were whooped and ready to sit for a bit, so we headed back to the start to get our backpack that they made us check. ugh, so we walked back around 1 mile to the entrance and gathered our stuff. and we were off, we found a place to sit and eat and cool off for a bit. then we started the trek back near our hotel. we passed the castel de st angelo, where they filmed Angels and Demons. Pretty. we then walked to the pantheon, since it was closed also due to the holiday.


{the pantheon}


{ the ceiling of the pantheon}

this church was built by back in the day, it can fit a perfect sphere inside of it and the ceiling is open to outside.  so if it rains outside it rains inside too. pretty crazy right? oh and raphael is buried in here. kinda neat.




we ended up doing a little more shopping and then found a place for dinner. after dinner you will never guess what we got next, yep gelato at gelateria valentinos. then we found a place to sit at the trevi fountain and watch the people.

{trevi fountain}

we finished the night on our own private balcony, cody told the hotel we were celebrating our belated honeymoon. the loon. 

and we called it a close to our roman holiday. the next day we returned home. which was also an adventure. Cody and I got separated and i made it home a day before him. who would have thought. all in all it is an amazing place, i asked cody if we could move there the last night there, he said no but i would in a heartbeat. loved it.