I heart Roma, and I’m pretty sure Roma hearts me too. Had the most spectacular day. We all hopped on the train to Rome, and Tam, Katie, Brett and I decided to jump off at an earlier stop than the others to go for breakfast and to the Spanish Steps before the Vatican Tour later this afternoon. We managed the Metro no problem and went and found a little restaurant for breakfast. I ordered an omelette with bacon, but it was awful, which sucked. The bacon was literally just all oil. Grossies. The other’s food was good at least.
Next we went to the steps, where we just walked around a bit and then went and sat on them for a while and people watched. With that done, we all decided to rather get back on the Metro and go to the Vatican City stop so we’d be around there to meet the group later. Just as well we left when we did, because we somehow managed to get lost in the Metro for half an hour. Literally. Just walking up and down, with each turn leading to an exit into the street but not actually taking us to a train. The signage is really not good, and obviously it’s in Italian as well. It was actually pretty funny though.
Spanish Steps!
Me, Brett, Tam & Katie on the Spanish Steps
Finally we got to the Vatican stop. We just wandered around a bit again, sticking with our relaxed feeling for the day. It was so good to not feel like we were in a rush and could actually just take a couple minutes to remember that we were in Rome! We went and bought our “I Heart Roma” shirts for tonight’s party and then found a place for lunch. A lot of food today. Haha. I had Carbonara again, because it came as part of a deal. Again, it was nice, but I think I was expecting way too much from every place in term of pasta standard. At least I ate Carbonara in Rome, so score one for the Bucket List.
We went to meet up with the group for our Vatican Tour with a local guide. We all get these headsets to wear so we can hear her while we’re walking around. She starts off with “yoo-hoo Contiki” to get our attention, which was hilarious because you just hear this voice in your ear if you can’t see her. Because we were in a group we got to skip the queues. The Museums are amazing. Everything is detailed and old and even though it’s really busy inside and it was about a thousand degrees it felt like, its really cool to realise that you’re actually in a different country.
Some of the amazing ceiling artwork found throughout the Vatican Museums
I was so excited for the Sistine Chapel. It was one of the things I was most looking forward to. We heard a bit about the paintings and how they were done. For example, the paintings on th ceiling were not done in the order you see them in. The Noah paintings were done first, with the creation ones following. The composition of them is also different, with the early ones having lots of figures in them, and the later ones rather having fewer bigger figures in them – which makes them easier to see. No photos in the Sistine Chapel, but I’m kind of glad. A photo wol never be able to do it justice. A lot of people ran through really fast, but I decided I was going to just stand for a few minutes and enjoy it. So I did. It really is incredible. I mean my neck got sore in those few minutes looking up like that; I can’t imagine doing that for four years. The images are breathtaking, and done in such a way that they actually look 3 dimensional. I am so happy I did the tour, because there’s no way I would have enjoyed it as much without knowing some of the background for everything.
We also got a chance to go into St Marks Basilica. It is also incredible. Its massive. I saw the Pieta, and just walked around a bit looking up at the massive ceiling. Most of us in the group decided after that to head back to the camp site as it had been a long day and all of our feet were starting to hurt. I’m quite lucky that my feet haven’t really gotten swollen or anything, a lot of the girl’s have been having this problem. We all managed to make it back to the camp site pretty easily. We all just hung around for a bit, and then went to have dinner. We had chicken parmigiana (I think that’s what it’s called??) And it was delicious. Everyone put on their Roma shirts and we headed up to the bar. Somehow we ended up playing a massive round of “never have I ever” which was so funny. And then the markers came out and we all wrote on each other’s shirts. Reading those later was hysterical, I laughed so much.
Me with Clare (our incredible TM) and Colby
It is official though, I absolutely love Italy. Off to Venice in the morning, our last stop in Italy.
Megan's Travel Adventure 