Rome - Day 8 - Vatican -- March 8 ---PART I To say that the Vatican is amazing would be an understatement. It was the single best, most incredible thing I have ever seen, or probably will ever see. It had been a dream of mine over the course of the last two years to see the Vatican. Literally a dream. There was nothing I wanted more than to see the museums, the paintings, the sculptures, and to learn the history of the amazing, centuries old Vatican. We had to be up extremely early to be on the bus on our [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ciao! I am really loving Italy. It's such an adventure everywhere we go. Especially trying to upload photos in an internet cafe. So far I haven't found one that has worked for me which is kind of disheartening, but I'll live. Today has been long, but quite wonderful. We woke up at 5:45 in order to get to the Vatican early enough without a long wait. Standing in line was something in itself. When we got off the metro at our stop, some people literally started running to the Vatican. It was 7:30, an hour and 45 minutes before it even [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today I woke up early and well-rested for my tour of the Vatican Museums. Apparently, it’s impossible to go in as an individual; you need to be part of a group. Since I had to pay for a group tour, I decided to upgrade and go with a guided tour. Seeing attractions, it’s sometimes hard to know whether to spring for guided tours or audio tours. #1 - I’m cheap, and on a budget here! But also, it’s just how much can you take in constantly having a voice yapping at you. That said, I’m really glad I had the tour [View Full Entry]

---

---

All roads lead to Rome. So I'm walking along a road ... in Rome yeah, and suddenly found myself heading towards another city. Now I've done my fair share boning up on ancient history dear reader, so how could this be happening? Oh hang on ... now I get it, the road was heading for the fortified Vatican City deep within the bosom of the eternal city. Vatican city is an independent city-state and the home of Il Papa who continues the ancient tradition of leading the Catholic Church while ably protected by implacable Swiss guards. I arrived recently on a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello all, Peter and I have finsihed our bus tour and are now back in Rome. Let me say, thank goodness for wheels on bags because even though the cobblestone streets seem great from a distance, they are a bugger to navigate with bags in tow. We have had a wonderful tour around Italy, I especially liked the north. Yes, the hills of Tuscany are truely beautiful. We had a great time in Florence, then onto the Lake region - Lugano (in Switzerland ) was absolutley beautiful as was Lake Maggiore. Stayed behind the fortified walls of the old city in [View Full Entry]

---

---

Back in Italy, went to this hostel I emailed but they didn't have my booking!!! ended up sleeping on a matress in the common room for the first night.......and the next day they said they have 2 more nights booked for me. OK. The place was cool with satalite TV! haaaa..... So the next day had to wake up early to give make the room available for breakfast, so I headed out early to start walking around Rome. It was FREEEEZING!!! ><" walked around the Colosseum........and the ruins in that area... then walked over to Transtevere to go to the marketplace....long [View Full Entry]

---

---

This trip is getting to be pretty challenging. As our bags become heavier and multiplying our trip is getting more tiresome. We spent a good chunk of the day just going from our nice peaceful Cinque Terre on this tempermental train to ROME. At first it was 25mins late, then in the middle of the road it stopped for about 25 minutes because I'm guessing there was some sort of power issue or obstacle on the road, not sure, this was from my VERY broken Italian with this sweet old Italian couple sitting in our same train compartment. Then the whole [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi everyone, it has been difficult to find internet cafes in parts of Italy. We left the Villa on Saturday and on our way to Naples Carolina and I got separated from the rest of the group due to the train taking off too fast and people crowding on the train. We ended up having to take a taxi through Naples and we thought we were going to die. . I have never been so scared in my entire life as we were in that taxi. We were saying our last prayers. . . we finally hooked up with the others [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well, let me just say AMAZING! The long, long, long, long line for the Vatican was definately worth while. We planned to get up early this morning to go see the Vatican, unfortunately the alarm didn't work. We were able to hop the metro and be there by around 8:20am, and the line was already stretched around the block. It was around 10:45am by the time we actually made it to the entrance, which was great compared to most! We decided a tour would be best for a place such as this, so we knew what it was we were looking [View Full Entry]

---

---

HAIL TO CAESAR We woke up early today to have another fabulous buffet breakfast which is spoiling us rotten. All the cheeses, pastries, and meats, etc are fantastic. Thank god Faith and I do a lot of walking. Weather has been fantastic. We had a fantastic tour of the Coliseum, Vatican and the Pantheon. Words cannot describe the beauty of these magnificent statues, paintings, and buildings. Tomorrow, the Boughese galleries. Enjoy the pictures more to come. Buona notte Neil and Faith [View Full Entry]

---

---