Vatican City

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April 4, 2008

Katie and I woke up, got ready, and went to the complimentary breakfast the hostel offers. It was very good, as most breakfasts seem to be over here. We needed to figure out how to get into Rome since we are staying in Ostia, technically, which is right outside of Rome. The lady at the reception desk told us what to do. We went outside to pick up the bus. This ended up being a special one to the school, so the bus driver took us back. He stopped right in front of the bus we needed so the driver could let us on so we didn’t have to wait again. It was the tight bus, and we went to the train station. We rode the train til what we thought was our stop, which it wasn’t, and then hopped onto the Metro to our exit. We were told to find Bus 23. That took forever to find, but finally we got it and made out way towards Vatican City.

We got of at our stop by St. Peter’s Basilica and went to the Vatican Museums. There are over 9 miles of museums, but we were mainly interested in the Sistine Chapel, so we went straight there. On our walk there, we passed a lot of sculptures, tapestries, and other paintings. Finally we made it to the Sistine Chapel. It was amazing! I didn’t realize what it truly was, or how big it was. I can’t believe Michelangelo painted it all by himself while leaning backwards. We went through some more areas before stopping at the Post Office to mail some postcards. From there we went to St. Peter’s. First we went to where a lot of the popes are buried, including John Paul II and St. Peter. After that, we went up to the church. It was huge and very interesting. We were getting pretty hungry at this point and decided to sit on the steps to eat our toast and jelly from the hostel- such a great lunch!

When we were recharged, we got in line to go to the top for a view of Rome. The line took forever, but we made friends with a couple from Arizona and another from Germany, and that made the line go faster. We opted to save money and climb the 350 steps to the top. A lot of these steps were small, windy, and in a very narrow or slanted area. It was quite the hike! Finally, we reached the top. It was an awesome view; so many pictures were taken! It was getting a little chilly and windy, so we made our way down, which was worse than going up because the steps were slippery and it made us dizzy walking in circles!

Since Katie and I love ice cream, we found a gelato shop. I had Coffee and Baileys, and Katie had Strawberry and Wild Berry. It was pretty darn good! We decided to walk around and make our way to catch the train. We walked passed a monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, a former king of Italy. This was also a memorial site for the tomb of an Unknown Soldier that is guarded like the ones in D.C. We passed ruins and saw the Colosseum, but we didn’t want to spoil tomorrow’s fun, so we only looked briefly! From here we caught the Metro to the train to the bus to our hostel, without getting lost! We needed some food and drinks, so we walked around Ostia til we found a grocery store, and back to the hostel to eat and relax before bed.

Buses: 4, Trains: 2, Metros: 2.

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