Vatican

I'm sitting on the bank of the Tiber river right now, near the Castel Sant Angelo. I think that if I lived here, I would come here a lot. It's very pretty, but it's also quiet down here. There is almost no one down here. You can still hear the traffic noise up above, but it's distant. I'm waiting for the sun to set a bit more so I can shoot some photos of Saint Peter's Basilica in the sunset.

So, on Saturday I got up just in time to run out the door in an effort to make my reservation at the Vatican. The lines can be 2+ hours to get in, but you can reserve online to skip the line. Some people I had spoken to said that they were very strict about what you could wear inside; shoulders must be covered and skirts and shorts must cover the knees. Well, none of my clothes that I brought fit the bill. So I made a mad dash through the sketchy Asian shops align the streets behind termini to try to find something to make myself more modest. I finally found a pashmina that fit the bill, so I bought it and grabbed a taxi to the vatican.

Once there, I breezed right through the crowds and walked right in. The Vatican museum was lovely. Its collection went back to Ancient Egypt, which I love, went through Ancient Rome and through the Renaissance, up to contemporary art. Which, if you think about it, is pretty bad actually, considering the fact that the Vatican used to just be the papal house, and these priceless works of art were amassed solely for the popes amusement. And now they make people pay 12€ just to see it all. Seems pretty scummy if you ask me. I saw the Sistine Chapel, and it was breathtaking. It was made much better by having a guidebook to add context. For instance, the guidebook pointed out the fact that Michelangelo painted one of his biggest critics into the hell scene on the wall with the last judgement. I thought that was pretty funny.

After seeing the Sistine Chapel, I went and toured Saint Peter's Basilica. That was just awe inspiring. It is just so HUGE. The whole thing, including the nave, which Michelangelo didn't want built and was added after his death, is the length of 7 football fields. And the dome? Seven stories high. Seven. Unbelievable. I toured the church for a bit, then did the climb of the dome. For this, you take an elevator half way, and then climb 320 steps inside the dome to the top. Apparently, this is a lot. The climb is inside the dome, so the stairs are curved inside its face. As the stairs climb and the dome gets narrower, the ceiling starts to lean further and further in. Towards the end of this section I felt pretty claustrophobic. Then, you climb endless spiral stairs to get to the top, which of course don't have railings. I hate spiral staircases; they're just too tight. When I finally made it to the top, the view was very nice, but not worth that climb.

I stayed up there for a good half an hour, just because I dreaded the descent. And rightly so. It was terrible. I was terrified the entire time that I was going to trip, have nothing to grab on to, and just fall forever. I had to sing songs in my head to distract myself from my panic. Obviously, I made it back down just fine. But I would not recommend this sight to other travelers.

By the time I made it out of St. Peter's, it was 3:45, which was long past when most restaurants stopped serving lunch. I decided to have a picinic in a nearby park instead of dining at a terrible tourist trap place. I perused a nearby market, and end up with a ball of mozzerrella, prosciutto, a loaf of bread, coconut yogurt, peach flavored water, and a chocolate candy bar for 6€. It was a feast. I dined in the park next to Castel Sant'Angelo, and watched this little kid do laps around the park on a Segway. I then returned to the hostel and get cleaned up.

Once I was presentable, I went out to the common room and joined in a round of drinking games. Everyone who was in at the hostel joined in, which was pretty cool because our group included Koreans, Germans, a guy from the Ukraine, Argentinians, British, and Chinese. We would play a game for a while, then someone would teach everyone another game. At one point we were playing a game where you went around a circle saying numbers aloud, and we changed it so that everyone had to say their number in their own language. Fun, but very challenging to keep up with where we were.

We played drinking games for such a long time that we missed the train to the bar we wanted to go to. We ended up going to a bar up the street. It looked very sketchy, but the rest of the group thought it was fine so I joined them. It ended up being a really fun evening. We played never have I ever and drank cheap red wine. The owner even gave us a bottle on the house. Afterwards, we stopped and got kebabs. I had never had it before, but it was amazing. Delicious food inside a yummy tortilla! Like mexican, but better.