Europe Trip: Day 23, June 12th

I woke up at 7am and got ready to go. Francesca was in a hurry, which was a little odd to me because she said the latest we could leave was 8am and it was only 7:35am. On the way to work she told me that she is supposed to be at work by 8am! It takes an hour and a half to get to work from her place due to traffic, but she said that she is usually late and it is fine.

She showed me her office and gave me her mobile number and some other information, and then I was off. First I headed over to the Vatican. I had this preconceived notion that it was somehow physically separated from Rome, like there were walls around it, but in fact there is nothing. As far as I know the Vatican is just considered St. Peter's Basilica and the ajoining buildings like the Vatican Museums (containing the Sistine Chapel).

When you get on the street that leads up to St. Peter's Square there is an optical illusion that makes it appear that the church is quite close when in fact it is far away. Once you have reached the square you can walk around a bit and see the giant columns done by I believe Bernini, see the two giant statues of Peter and Paul -- patron saints/protectors of Rome -- and see St. Peter's Basilica loom up before you a colossal feat of architecture.

After walking around a bit I got in the first line I saw. It was quite long, so I assumed it was the one for the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel -- I was wrong. The line was for going inside the Basilica, which is free, but in order to protect the Pope or something they have you go through the metal detectors.

When you are inside you lose perspective, and when I talked to someone later they said that something in there is 5 stories high...but when you are there it seems like maybe a couple stories. It took them something like 150-200 years to complete the construction of St. Peter's.

After marvelling at the grandness of the Basillica I headed for the exit and found my way to the line for the Vatican Museums. This line was quite a bit longer, but I only had to wait 45 minutes to an hour. Apparently I was lucky, as it isn't unusual for the wait to be 2 or more hours!

I got an audio guide thing for the first time to help explain some different things as I walked along. Otherwise you probably won't get anything out of the museums. Who can tell the differences or significance of the hundreds if not thousands of statues, paintings, etc? I wandered around, mostly seeing the statues, there was a cool room that had maps painted on the walls. These maps were huge and were for different regions of Italy -- for example one was of Sicily, another of Corsica, another of all of Italy.

Eventually I made my way to the Sistine Chapel, which was crowded with people and quite dark. You could see flashes from people's cameras all over the place even though cameras were supposed to be forbidden. Nonetheless the giant paintings, which I believe are actually mosaics and not frescoes, are quite beautiful and amazing.

My next stop was the Castel San Angelo, which used to house the remains of Emperor Hadrian (I don't think it does anymore). Later it was used by the Popes as a fortress and there was even a secret underground tunnel from the Vatican so that the Pope could reach safety. Sadly I never got to see such a tunnel :) It was quite cool and in very good condition. At the top you get a nice view of Rome. For some reason there were a lot of hot French girls around, don't ask me why. I enjoyed the view for a while and then decided to kill some time by wandering around the city.

I got a drink and talked to an American guy who had been all over the world in the past few years. We talked a bit about Costa Rica, travelling alone, and all that good stuff. Then I saw the time and had to hurry back to meet Francesca outside her work. I got there just in time as she was opening the car. Lubna called her and said that we should wait for her to get there, she had been to a copy shop to print off one of her CAD drawings.

At home Francesca made some pasta and all sorts of other things. I ate until I was full and then I ate some more -- just like home =) It was nice to have some home-cooked meals after so long on the road.