Blogs from Vatican City, Vatican City, Europe

Where do I begin.... After an amazing nights sleep I was advised on all the best places to go by the people at the hotel...which included lovely Georgio. I went to the cafe around the corner for breakfast...I normally don't drink coffee but when in Rome....so I just blerted out 'cappuccino per favore'. Arh shit. I hate coffee. But apparently not Italian coffee! It gorgeous. I noted that most people ordered expresso and necked it at the bar. Then Georgio came in...and bought me my breakfast!!! No one has ever done that and I've had a stupid smile on my face since. I got the metro to the Vatican - oh my days it is beyond beautiful. I started at St Peter's Basilica and St Peter's Square which is by far the most impressive landmark I ... read more

Rome... it was so good. Arrived at the train statio, walked about 5 minutes to my hostel, checked in, then walked around the area i was in for a while. after, i met two brothers from hong kong, and and english fellow. We hung out that night after eating free pasta. We went to a the colloseum and a few nearby places and saw the city by night. we got gilato which is so much better than american icecream. The next day I went to the the Colloseum and the surounding area again but got to in the places, I ran into Justin and Cameron, which were to ausies I ran into in Monaco at a restraunt, and then again when i was leaving Monaco, so the third time I gave them my name so they ... read more

Rome 2 with Anna My last day in Rome, and my last day with Anna began with a delicious breakie and a quick trip into town to drop Anna's bag off at her new hostel. We had booked ourselves onto a Vatican tour at 10am and it started at the bridge of angels. There was so much amazing history, I wont go into too much detail as a lot of it wasn't absorbed. There were a few art works that really amazed me. One is done by Michelangelo called the Pieta and is a statue of a young Madonna holding a deceased Jesus. For a few reasons this doesn't make sense. One, she is not young when Jesus died, two she is far too large (8 foot if she stood up) and three the way she ... read more

These days are starting to all blur together. It was strange how dead the bar was last night but I guess the locals don't party too hard on a Wednesday. I talked to mom yesterday for the first time in a while. Gave her a massive Internet hug. love ya mom. I will never take for granted how there are no gypsys in Canada. Literally everywhere. All selling the same shit. Like, no I don't want your cheap ass Louis Vuitton purse and stop calling me playboy! Remember I said I did laundry at 2 in the morning the other night? Well I had a bit of a scare. I didn't grab my clothes because this girl from our tour said she would hold onto them for me. Well it turns out she only had my ... read more

Ciao! Sorry we skipped a day, as you'll see, friday was quite an eventful day... It was our last day in Paris. We started the day at the Arc de Triumphe and then walked down the Champs Elysees. It was gorgeous and super cool, considering all that has happened there. We went through the Place della Concorde and saw the obelisk, where Marie Antoinette and others lost their heads. We also met a few pickpockets, but outwitted them all! We finally came to the louvre, where we planned to spend our last few peaceful hours. Right. At the desk, we were informed that our pre-ordered tickets needed to be picked up back at Champs Elysees, so Sophie and Dad raced back over to pick them up. We finally were able to enter, but our visit was ... read more

Well, actually Vatican City is not in Rome. It is a tiny nation itself. But we still consider it part of our visit to Rome. We met our tour guide, Alex Mariotti, outside the Ottaviano San Pietro Metro station at about 1:15pm. David didn't show up, but we liked Alex better. By 2pm we were ready to start our tour, complete with headsets, inside the Vatican Museum. Alex was a fantastic tour guide and story teller. He told the story of Michaelangelo and how he came about to paint the Cappella Sistina. He told us how Michaelangelo was not a painter, but a sculpter, and shared the story of his relationships with the Pope, other artists and his life. After all of that, of course, Michaelangelo was a great artist. By the time we had reached ... read more

So the plan for Monday was to check out the Castel Sant'Angelo, hit up the Mausoleum of Augustus, and see where I went from there. I had forgotten the cardinal rule of tourism in Europe. Almost _nothing_ is open Mondays. And the Castel was not the exception to the rule. And the mausoleum? Undergoing extensive restoration work and completely inaccessible. Not even a good photo opp. So I caved. I found a tour group that would take me through the Vatican museum to the Sistine Chapel, and while we'd have to wait in queues, they were much shorter cues than the poor suckers doing it on their own. I wasn't going to do the museum because it was so bloody crowded (designed for 5-10k visitors per day, they're seeing roughly 30k/day in peak periods). And it ... read more