Last day in Rome

May 24th was actually the date for this one, I have fallen a little behind.

I took a train from Florence this morning back to Rome for my flight the following day. I got there early enough to run around and see a few more things that I missed before. The Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. Vatican City is on the other side of Rome from where I was staying, and only the bus goes there not the underground metro. Funny thing, on the underground you have to put in your prepaid metro card to get in. On the buses however, there is a validation machine very much like the train stations. If you don't validate your train ticket though, and get caught by the conductor who checks them, you have to pay a fine because technically you could use it again. Weird, I know. Anyway, on the buses the bus driver doesn't check to see if you validated your ticket, so only the tourists validate them. I did as the locals do, and just sat down. Although, there is a chance that the inspector will come on the bus to check tickets, and that's when everyone runs for the validation machine (this did not happen while I was taking the bus). Vatican Museums consist of a number of rooms or museums. You could spend all day here...again. I spent half the day, and got an audio guide, since they are now my best friend to save money on a tour guide. Besides getting sweep away in a few tour groups (and it's always the Asian ones...), I managed to get to every room and see all the major works of art or artifacts. No flash allowed, so I had a hard time getting pictures of some things, and no pictures in the Sistine Chapel...ahem. After this, I headed over to St. Peter's Basilica. For those who are not aware, Vatican City is actually it's own country. It has it's own postage and post office and everything. St. Peter's is huge, with St. Peter's Square directly in front of it where people will gather to watch mass on Sundays given by the Pope which is broadcasted on the very large screens outside in the Square. Many of the tombs of past popes are here, including a tomb for St. Peter (the first pope). There was another dome to climb up and see the view of Rome...I decided against it. I wandered around the Church for a while, my favorite and the last thing I saw there as I circled around the church was the Pietà, a sculpture by Michelangelo. I headed out and around the square, towards where I planned to have dinner that night, Pizzeria Amalfi, and walked down one of the major shopping streets while I waited till 7pm for it to open (I don't know if I'd ever like siesta...unless I really did get to take a nap, since everything closes for 4 hours). I got some gelato (surprise), chocolate, vanilla, and pistachio. I was hesitate to try that one, but an Australian I met in Florence told me it was a must and it was actually her favorite flavored ice cream. And it was great. I went to the pizza place, and finally got the best pizza ever. It was half Margherita (cheese) , and half Marinara (no cheese). I also got this great dessert, Panna cotta, which was is an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. They also put chocolate sauce on it for me. And by the way, no, I haven't gotten fat from eating all this food and sweets, because I walk everywhere. So there, I do what I want! It was a good end to the day, and I went back to the hostel to get to bed and pack for my flight.

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