As we Googled Vatican ticket prices for the day, we noticed that if you were a student you could get a discounted ticket, and at first we thought that was a score! As I kept reading, however, the website said that every last Sunday of the month was a free entrance day. Our butts were so lucky that it happened to be the last Sunday of the month and that we ditched our original plan of going yesterday (Saturday) because of sleeping through alarms. All ready to go, waters in hand (We are catching the last bit of serious heat) we set out for the Vatican! Luckily, we are staying just around the corner! The line was SO long, but because it was free day, everyone just got to stream in without having to take the time to stop and pay. We made it through what would have been a 3 hour line in about 50 Minutes. The last entrance into the Vatican today was at 12:30 because that is when the Pope would be coming out. (We didn’t know that at the time.) The Vatican was stunning! The only downside was that it was way too hot in some of the rooms to enjoy them. We got to go through the Sistine Chapel and through all of the ornate rooms and it was truly an amazing experience! As we left we were so parched we were headed back to the apartment and as we rounded the corner of the Vatican walls the entire area in front of St. Peter’s Basilica absolutely exploded with people. Immediately we knew something had to be going on. We walked around the pillars and eventually asked the guard what was going on, he didn’t understand us and just welcomed us into the square. After some acting out, he finally understood and explained in broken English that the Pope would be coming out in about 10 minutes to give a blessing and wave hello! What luck for the second time today! We got to say hello to the Pope!
By now it was about 12:45 and we made our way back to our room, chugged some water, and without needing to speak to each other about it, all crashed for a traditional 2 to 4pm nap. We are finally getting used to Italian time! Everything is closed during this time, and then restaurants and bars open closer to 6:30 so there isn’t much to do or see wandering the streets anyway… justifying our nap!
We rallied a little too early, expecting to find food at around 5:00pm when we set out, but only a little pizza place was open for food and we were looking for pasta, so we shard a single pizza to avoid the hangry situation. To kill time we walked over to where Bronte saw some tents near a castle by the river when she was trying to find the apartment on her own the very first night. Some of the tents served food, some sold clothing, but a lot sold books! Too bad most of them were in Italian! The castle nearby was closed at this point but we stood along the wall to the river, looked at the large castle, and watched a man rowing along the river. We found a cute place to eat for dinner. I got pesto pasta, Bronte got tomato gnocchi, Tanner got mussels and clams, and Joe got a shrimp seafood pasta. We all shared and the seafood was to die for; I am not a mussels person and I loved them! We had leftovers because the portions were huge, so we took those home and set out on a quest for a plastic fork (much harder than you would think!) After a couple tries at a few markets, I was able to act out something good enough to land us a single plastic fork to be able to eat our leftovers later! We bought 3 Peroni beers at the market to have with our leftovers. We are back in the room now and Joe is watching Fargo, Tanner is ‘looking at stupid shit on the Internet” (What he said to me when I asked just now) and Bronte is writing a paper that is due in a couple of hours!
Joe is proud that he successfully peeled a Peroni label off of the bottle to save! Haha!
I will soon look up train tickets for tomorrow, we leave for Florence tomorrow! Tonight we will keep hanging out and pack up for a travel day tomorrow! Ciao!
PS. We have a pet goldfish at this apartment. And an albino frog. We found the food for the fish… but not the frog…. Good luck to ya buddy!
To add to the night we are siting at the nearest cafe because the power went out and I have an assignment to finish and need wifi! Another round of Peroni for everyone and a bag of popcorn to finish out the night and wait for the power to be on!
Payton (On behalf of Joe, Bronte, and Tanner!)
Question of the night: Why are the nuns all so short?
By now it was about 12:45 and we made our way back to our room, chugged some water, and without needing to speak to each other about it, all crashed for a traditional 2 to 4pm nap. We are finally getting used to Italian time! Everything is closed during this time, and then restaurants and bars open closer to 6:30 so there isn’t much to do or see wandering the streets anyway… justifying our nap!
We rallied a little too early, expecting to find food at around 5:00pm when we set out, but only a little pizza place was open for food and we were looking for pasta, so we shard a single pizza to avoid the hangry situation. To kill time we walked over to where Bronte saw some tents near a castle by the river when she was trying to find the apartment on her own the very first night. Some of the tents served food, some sold clothing, but a lot sold books! Too bad most of them were in Italian! The castle nearby was closed at this point but we stood along the wall to the river, looked at the large castle, and watched a man rowing along the river. We found a cute place to eat for dinner. I got pesto pasta, Bronte got tomato gnocchi, Tanner got mussels and clams, and Joe got a shrimp seafood pasta. We all shared and the seafood was to die for; I am not a mussels person and I loved them! We had leftovers because the portions were huge, so we took those home and set out on a quest for a plastic fork (much harder than you would think!) After a couple tries at a few markets, I was able to act out something good enough to land us a single plastic fork to be able to eat our leftovers later! We bought 3 Peroni beers at the market to have with our leftovers. We are back in the room now and Joe is watching Fargo, Tanner is ‘looking at stupid shit on the Internet” (What he said to me when I asked just now) and Bronte is writing a paper that is due in a couple of hours!
Joe is proud that he successfully peeled a Peroni label off of the bottle to save! Haha!
I will soon look up train tickets for tomorrow, we leave for Florence tomorrow! Tonight we will keep hanging out and pack up for a travel day tomorrow! Ciao!
PS. We have a pet goldfish at this apartment. And an albino frog. We found the food for the fish… but not the frog…. Good luck to ya buddy!
To add to the night we are siting at the nearest cafe because the power went out and I have an assignment to finish and need wifi! Another round of Peroni for everyone and a bag of popcorn to finish out the night and wait for the power to be on!
Payton (On behalf of Joe, Bronte, and Tanner!)
Question of the night: Why are the nuns all so short?