Well this was definitly an eventful day! We began the day with a huge breakfast in our room! Then, headed over to tour Ancient Rome...a bunch of rubble and ruins, which was to be expected after hundreds of years of conflict and war. Pete soaked it all in, while I was more interested in getting to the Vatican. We thought we were going fine on our time and decided to grab a bite at cheap buffet located near the Vatican, that was recommended in our guide book. We took a bus from the Heart of Rome which took us a few blocks south of the Vatican wall. Because the buffet was on the north side and on the top of a hill we decided to take another bus to save time...BIG MISTAKE! We were trying to save time because the Vatican musuem stops letting people in at 16:00 and we wanted plenty of time to stand in line. Even though we had a map of the bus routes...we apparently read it wrong and headed in the opposite direction. About 1.5 hours later, through the Roman ghetto (which our guide book says STAY OUT of this sketchy neighborhood) we ended up off the map at the bus route...the driver who spoke no English told us to get off the bus! After showing on the map where we intened to be he realized we had messed up and told us to wait on this corner of the ¨ghetto¨. After a confusing wait we got on another bus and headed north, back to the same place we got on...Got off the bus, with 15 minutes til 16:00...and practically ran a mile only to find we were one minute late! Needless to say...I was a mess, because this was the most important site to me in all of Europe! So...after shaking it off (as Aiden would do) we went across the street to get a quick bite, because we never made it to the buffet and were STARVING...we got cold, nasty lasagna and 2 cokes...which to our surprise was $28 Euro! What a rip off...could that day get any worse! At this point our spirits were low, and we wondered if we could ever salvage the day.
We then decided to make the best of it and went to St. Peters Basilica...thank goodness we did! This was probably the only place in all of Rome that could lift our spirits...and boy did it! This was truely the most touching experience of our entire trip. St. Petér´s is largest, most ornate church in the world! Pictures just don´t do it justice...Pete and I were both brought to tears...and not necessarily by the building itself, but the thought in which it provoked. Upon entering we both kneeled and said a little prayer and our hearts were truly touched. Too much to explain, we will give more details when we get back home. After taking in the church with all its architecture and artistic glory, we decided to go to the top of the cupola (which is the largest dome in the world). Because our legs were so tired from the run to make the Vatican Museum we decided to pay a little extra and take the elevator half way up...climbing the stairs within the dome was really neat...it was day to skip your V8 because you had to lean to accomidate the shape of the hallway around the dome...pictured above (Pete is standing up straight).
Because we had to catch an early train we decided to take it easy and eat a nice dinner at a cafe close to our hotel....being that we were a little weiry of buses. The dinner was so so, but it did the trick.
ALso, somewhere in our short stay we enjoyed some delicious gelato...of course! We have a video to share later...hopefully.
We are about to run out of time...but we have much more to share, including an eventful trip to the train station! Will explain in later posts. Bye!
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