Rome--Day 2

We hit the ground running on our second day in Rome. First up was the Trevi Fountain. We tried to get there early to beat the crowds, but we got sort of lost on the way. We finally ended up there and took our fun tourist pictures and then headed on to the next. Our big project of the day was to get to the Vatican, but we took a few little side steps to see some sites on the way.

It was already pretty hot, even though it was only around 10am, so my mom wanted to stop and get some "lunch", which was a huge cone of gelato! (Talk about a diet I could get used to!! haha) After that we went to see this tower with very intricately carved patterns. It was cool, but I had never seen anything about it in my research for traveling, so I just kind of ignored it. We were also too busy eating our gelato to take a picture. Oops! At least we have a mental picture...

Our last stop before the Vatican was the Spanish Steps. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting, but certainly expecting more than just a few flights of steps. Maybe they would be more decorated? Or have some sort of great story behind them? Unfortunately, neither of these were the case and to me they just seemed like ordinary stairs littered with lots and lots of people. I'll let you decide for yourself:

can you spot me?! 

After these little pitstops, we were finally on our way to the Vatican. We used some tips provided by Ron In Rome and they proved to be a lifesaver! We weaved our way through, highlighting everything and yet saving ourselves tonnnnns of time! First, we headed into the Vatican Museums. There were tons and tons of statues, busts, and antiques that belonged to the vatican. From there you were sort of shuffled from room to room, until you were eventually led out to a little courtyard. In the courtyard, there was a sign with all of the artwork from the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately, it is forbidden to take pictures in there, so I guess the next best thing is to show you on a poster. After we hung out in the courtyard for a little while, it was back to the shuffle. We saw more statues, paintings, granite slabs, and other interesting  things.  We went through the room of maps, the tapestry room etc. before we got to the Sistine Chapel. It was beautiful, but the famous "almost touching" painting was TINY!!! It was almost like I was doing a picture search for it. (ok not really, but I thought it would cover most of the ceiling!!).

spirally staircase in the Vatican Museums

a picture of all of the painting in the Sistine Chapel. do you see the famous painting? Its in the middle on the left...look REALLLY hard! 

From there it was our mission to get through the RIGHT door (as opposed to the left). This door was only reserved for guided tours, but you could cut out tons and tons of time waiting, and tons of extra walking. We tried to blend in, and we succeeded! We were able to go right from there to St. Peter's Basilica, instead of waiting in a separate line. We headed in, looked around, took our pictures, and headed out.

inside St. Peter's 

lucky me, got a picture with the pope! haha

Later that night we ate delicious pizza at a little place called Meid in Nepols! I can't find any link for it or else I would throw it on here, but its right by the Termini Station and it was probably the best pizza we had. If you only have a little while in Rome, venture out of the train station and eat at this cute little place. Definitely worth it! 

YUMMMM!