When we arrived in the city we first took some time to look at all the nice shops and market stalls set up along the streets. Both Kenny and I like looking at all those things, especially the cheap souvenirs. Kenny decided he wanted an "Italia" patch and I picked up something for my dad, but that's all we came away with. We passed some of the Swiss Guards on duty and then finally made it to the square around St. Peter's Basilica and walked around there for some time. Along the way we were approached by many different people trying to get us to sign up for tours of the museums in the city. We held our ground for quite some time but were finally convinced; I was very hesitant because I didn't want to get swindled but Kenny assured me that it would be a fun thing to do. We went to the tour office and signed up before heading down a couple doors to a trattoria for lunch. We had some amazing lasagna (I LOVE Italian food and my tummy is showing it, haha) with fruit salad for dessert. We had some time to kill before our tour began, so we found ourselves walking around again peering in windows.
Finally it was time to go and we ended up being the only ones in our tour group...score! We walked with our guide around the walls of the city until we were finally at the entrance to the Vatican museum. From the moment we got inside I was entranced; from beginning to end there were sculptures, paintings, frescos, and tapestries that were beautifully laid out. Our guide did a nice job giving us a background of many of the pieces in the collection but also gave us some time to just glance around and take in everything we had to look at. After walking along corridor after corridor, we were finally lead into the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately there were no pictures allowed inside, but I can tell you it was as grandiose as I would have imagined. It's hard to believe that one person painted over 50% of what was inside and even harder to believe that I was able to look at the same works of art hundreds of years later.
Once the tour was over we got in line at St. Peter's Basilica and were able to get inside before it closed. Unfortunately my camera died right as we got inside so I think we are going to go back tomorrow so I can capture some of its beauty. It could have easily been my favorite experience of the day and I would highly recommend pulling up some images of it if you haven't done so before.
Tomorrow we're going to try and see the Pantheon and a couple of other things monuments before wrapping things up back at the basilica. Hopefully we'll be able to get in for a second time but if not I feel lucky to at least have the mental images in my head.
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