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Published: April 23rd 2008
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The alarm went off at 6:00am, and we were still pretty tired. We forced ourselves to get up though b/c not having to wait in line to see the Vatican would be worth it. Out the door by 6:45, grabbed our usual breakfast at Bar Fondi, and then caught the metro to St. Peter's Square.
It was so incredible to be standing in St. Peter's Square and staring at St. Peter's Basilia. It was unfortunate that the pope had left for the states as we were coming here. But I could still picture him in the square saying mass and having the whole area lined with crowds of people. It was pretty early in the morning, so not a whole lot of sunlight adding to our pictures. I spent quite a bit of time in the basilica, checked out the famous Pieta statue by Michelangelo, rubbed St. Peter's foot which was pretty bored down, and stopped by St. Peter's grave to offer a prayer. I also passed by a lot of side chapels in which mass was taking place. Gajal got asked out by one of the guys that worked there, while I got stalked the whole length of the
church by another one. I continued to glare angrily at him and I think he got the point...
After finishing at St. Peter's square we rounded the corner and waited in line for the Vatican Museums (which is also where the Sistine Chapel is). We didn't have to wait very long because we had gotten there so early, and I was pretty grateful that Laurence had given us such good advice. To get to the actual displays in the museum, you have to go up a spiral staircase that kind of resembles a spiral staircase...I'm sure most of you can predict that I had quite a field day with that.
Once we were in the museum proper, we had to hunt down the Sistine Chapel which was quite a walk and not very easy to find. About 20 minutes later, we were staring at the ceiling where Michelangelo had done his famous paintings. I'm not sure that I was so impressed by the Sistine Chapel, but it was awesome to say that I've been here and seen it.
About 2 hours later, we were finished with the museum and decided that it was time to do some
more souvenir shopping. We bought rosaries and religious artifacts galore, and this kept us occupied until lunch time. Around noon we headed back towards the city center, grabbed lunch (AND gelato), and made a stop at the Castle de Sant Angelo. It was a pretty cool looking castle, but not worth 11 euros to go in, so we just admired from the outside. From there, we took the bus back to the hostel and took a much needed nap since we had woken up so early.
At around 7pm we headed out for the evening's festivities. We made dinner back at the hotel, and then went off to see the Trevi Fountain at nighttime, Pizza Navona, Campo del Fiori, and the Pantheon. We had found an area that we really loved...more souvenir shops, Blue Ice gelato, and lively people. We stayed out until almost midnight and then returned to RetRome for some more sleep.
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