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Published: February 14th 2013
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Vatican City I woke up this morning not hungover at all...it was great! Luckily I was able to sleep in until about 8:30 am. Today our drive to Rome would be quite short.
During the first part of the drive Seb handed out our tour T-shirts. One of the girls on tour, Ann (from California) is an amazing artist, and she designed the graphic for the t-shirts. It looked really great. I got a grey hoodie, but there are lots of different styles and colours to choose from. On most tours your group will be given the chance to create the design near the beginning of the tour, such as we did on this one. On my last tour (12 days), there really wasn't enough time for us to create our own, so our tour manager designed it for us. Either way this is a great souvenir! I still wear mine almost two years later.
We had one service stop today, then another hour of driving and we were in Rome! We drove straight to Vatican City where we had another optional activity, a tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. Vatican City is the home of the Roman
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Vatican Museums Catholic church, and has been the residence of the Pope since 1929. It is the smallest country in the world, with an area of only 110 acres, and just over 800 people.
Vatican tour (33 euro): Explore the historical treasures of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica on a sightseeing tour with our local guide. Take a walk through the collections of the Tapestry Gallery, visit Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel and top off your tour with a visit to the Basilica. With an included personal earpiece, it's guaranteed that you won't miss any of the guide's commentary as you explore these world-famous sites. Note: On occasions, the Vatican museum and Basilica may be closed for events or private visits. Your Tour Manager will advise.
The tour guide we had was very nice but she talked really fast and had a really thick accent, so it was hard to understand. It was really hot outside today (again), so I was feeling really tired and lazy. But it really was incredible being inside the Vatican and around all that priceless art. I know absolutely nothing about art, and I'm not a huge fan of museums,
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Vatican Museums but I even thought this was an amazing experience. At the end we got to visit the Sistine Chapel, which was just as incredible, however it was absolutely filled with people, all talking very loudly and taking tons of photos - both of which are not allowed in there.
After our tour was finished we had about an hour to walk around this tiny country before we got picked up and driven to our campsite. The campsite here is called Seven Hills Camping Rome, and it really lives up to its name. The drive into the campsite was absolutely gorgeous, all rolling hills and green grass and the sun was going down so it made it even more beautiful. Unfortunately the campsite itself wasn't as nice. We would be staying in wooden cabins - they weren't that bad, but they were very small. I was originally rooming with Karly, Debs, and Sharna. However, Debs is actually allergic to wood, and the cabins smelled like they had just been built out of freshly cut trees haha. It was a very strong scent, so me and her got moved to a gazebo, which was much nicer. Unfortunately, it was a ten
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Rome day sheet minute walk up a STEEP hill to the gazebo, so we had Krzysztof carry them for us...but we kept him company! I was starting to get fit after 3 weeks of lugging my (very) heavy suitcase around, but I wasn't that strong yet.
A big group of us had dinner at the campsite restaurant, but I thought the food was quite disappointing. I had spaghetti carbonara again, and it wasn't nearly as good as the dish I'd had in London. After eating I used the free wifi and attempted to call home on the pay phones, but it took me forever and I never even got through. It was a pretty chill night and I think I got to sleep at around 11 pm.
What did I learn today? There is such thing as a wood allergy!
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