The morning was cool, so we left early to get breakfast at Panneli (yum!), and took the metro to the Vatican Museums and got in line for about an hour to see the Sistine Chapel. Oh, it was so beautiful! It was so amazing to see it in person. After, we walked around the walls of the city to get to St. Peter's Basilica, where there are no bare shoulders or knees aloud. I happened to be wearing a tank top and shorts. Wasn't I smart? I had bought a T-shirt at the Vatican Museum, but my knees were still exposed. I was able to slip past the guards in front of the cathedral, which Amber said was very lucky. When I got to the second set of guards, one man looked at me and sadly said, "Is really too short." I gave him a really sad face and asked, "I can't go?" He shrugged his shoulders and let me in. Wow. We got in line for what we thought was entrance to the cathedral itself. As it turned out, we were in the line to go to the top of the Basilica di San Peitro. What a LONG hike! We went up a million gazillion steps to the base of the giant dome and were able to look down to the cathedral floor. What a sight! All the apostles and saints were represented in the form of intricate mosaics. We went even further up, now INSIDE the very dome walls. The walls were curving at almost 30-degree angles. Then, the stairs changed and we were beginning to hit the top of the curve of the dome. The last spiral staircase was so tight, that the handrail was nothing but a single thick rope hanging from ceiling to floor. The sight of Rome from the top of the largest cathedral in the world was astounding. We could see the Capitoline ruins, the Vatican Gardens, fountains, and mountains. If anyone reading this ever visits the Vatican City, they MUST go to the top of the Basilica di San Peitro! We spent about half an hour up there. When we came down, we came right out into the church. We went and saw the exquisite Pieta. I think it is my favorite statue in the whole world. Not very many people have seen the Pieta in person. We wandered the cathedral some more and looked up into the dome we had scaled only an hour earlier.
View from the top
Looking back toward the Vatican Museums
When we left the Vatican City it was already 3 pm and really hot outside again. We crossed the Tiber River and went to the Piazza Navona to get gelato and cash. Next, we walked to the Trevi Fountain, which was okay. There were lots of people there and I was more concerned about finding a cool place to sit and avoid pick pocketers than the scenery. After a while we walked all the way to the other side of Rome to the best gelato shop we had been to on our whole trip. After two doses of ice cream we went home, thinking that we would be eating dinner at a place a few doors down from our hostel. Wrong. Closed for the summer. We went upstairs to drop our stuff and I received a note that my mom had called and wanted me to call back (to check that we were still alive). No phones were at our disposal and the pay ones didn't work, so I went to the net cafe next door and emailed my mom. We went and got some groceries to make pasta in the kitchen. After we ate our fairly pitiful meal we went up for showers. Later, I was feeling hungry, so we went back down to the kitchen so I could eat the cookies and soda I had bought. We entered the kitchen to find a nice young man from Brighton cooking himself a dinner similar to ours, but it smelled much better. We chatted for an hour. Tomorrow is our last day in Rome before we go on the last leg of our journey.
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