May 21, 2012

Today we met outside the hotel at 8.00 AM. We hopped on the subway and took about a twenty minute ride to the other side of town and arrived at the Vatican.  We got there a little early, our scheduled tour wasn’t until 11.00.  The weather was pretty crappy and it rained until we went in for the tour.  Anoop told us that around the Vatican was the best gelato shops in Roma, so of course we all got some gelato… it tasted about the same as all the other gelato I have had, but it was still good. We visited St. Peter’s Square and saw the line to enter the Vatican, good thing Anoop is on top of things and we had a scheduled appointment, because the line was crazy long.  St Peter’s Square was really cool to see.  We then walked around St. Peter’s Basilica to enter the Vatican Museum.  There were many interesting works of art and tons of gigantic statues in the museum.  Our tour guide had the most annoying accent regarding her English that I have ever heard.  The tour took us through the museum and into the Sistine Chapel.  I have seen many pictures of the chapel but now I can say that nothing substitutes for the real thing.  It was incredible to see the detail in the paintings.  We were not supposed to take pictures and they were kicking people out if they caught them but I managed to get a few, check them out.  We then walked out of the Sistine Chapel directly to the outside of St Peter’s Basilica.  This is by far the largest building we have been in yet.  You really have to look at my pictures to understand how enormous this dome is.  After walking around the basilica we were released for the day and we all came back to the hotel to change out of our pants that we had to wear (for religious reasons).  We came out of the Basilica and it was great weather, sun was out and it was really hot.  I haven’t worked out since I have been in Europe and I have been eating gelato like it is going out of style so I figured now is as good a time as any.  I went to the hotel ‘gym’ and found a treadmill and about ten dumbbells; needless to say it was a pretty weak workout.  I came and worked on my blog a little bit and researched a little more about Cinque Terre and sent a few emails out regarding interviews for my thesis.  A few of us met up and went back to the pizzeria and I got ANOTHER kabob... they are amazing.  We walked around and explored the area around our hotel a little bit.  We got a few bottles of wine and came back to the hotel.  We stayed in tonight because we didn't know what time we had to be up in the morning.  We got an email from Anoop late tonight saying that we had to meet up at 4.30 PM the next day... so we could have gone out.  Anyways, I called it a night and planned on sleeping in a little bit the next day.  Check back tomorrow.

T