Rome – The Vatican. August 29

Today we took the train to the Vatican and somehow turned up at a time when there were literally no lines. Which was super strange but also the best news ever. We got ourselves some audio guides but Elise forgot her earphones and was too grossed out by putting the device up to her face that she didn’t really use it. Yuck.
So the Vatican itself is an area that doesn’t belong to the country of Italy because it is the Catholic headquarters of the world y’all. So it consists of the Vatican Museum (which we have just arrived at), and also the Saint Peter’s Basilica, as well as the rest of the Pope’s crib/headquarters.
We took ourselves around the rooms of the museum; casually looking at Ancient Egyptian relics in one room and huge marble Roman sculptures in the next. There were also lots of galleries full of paintings, and heavily decorated hallways housing massive tapestries and maps of Italy and the World. There was also a modern and contemporary religious art gallery which lots of people decided to skip right past, which is weird considering that if it was it’s own building someplace else in the city, they would probably pay to go see them. Also the works were collected by the church, not commissioned or necessarily intended by the artists to be owned by the church. Anyway, luckily we decided to have a look around because not only were there paintings by Dali, Bacon and Dix, but there was also a painting by Botero and Elise pretty literally died, right there and then.

Our street

Casual walk to this ol' gal

Doge friend at Vatican

Separated at birth

THE GRINCH?!

Elise literally dying/crying

Return of the Bacon

We eventually got to the Sistine Chapel, which was obviously super beautiful and amazing and crowded. Classic Michelangelo we guess. 

We kept exploring the Vatican museum for a while longer and eventually ended up in the courtyard where we snapchat-called our parents for a fun spontaneous chat.

IS THAT A (not) TINY PINEY CONE???

We finished up in the museum by walking down the weird/great double spiral ramp and walked around the block to Saint Peter’s Basilica, and lined up for a while, although not as long as we expected. It’s really amazing inside. Actually it’s totally overwhelming in its size and grandeur. There were also the remains of a Pope, which is fun and creepy.  We spent a good time having a look around before heading back out into the sunshine to take in the views from the front courtyard area.

New Bae

On the way back to the station we stopped off at McDonalds for a snack of fries because sometimes you just need to and then decided to head into the centre of Rome to check out the Trevi fountain.

Sadly, the Trevi fountain was under extreme renos, like most of Rome seemed to be. But have no fear; they still have a small area quartered off to toss our coins, so we got the photo. Also Ash missed the small area to toss it in, shame she can’t come back now, but don’t worry, Elise is pro at the Trevi coin toss now and got it in again.

Much concentration

V sad

Much wonder/confusion

Okay, some real talk. We got gelato again, WE KNOW SO NAUGHTY. But it was a really good one okay? And we got fruit flavour so its basically healthy right?? It was super delish and made us very happy.

We walked back to our apartment in our really lovely area of the city and then headed out for dinner at a nice family Italian restaurant around the corner, where Elise had lasagne and Ash had cannelloni. Yurm.
After dinner we headed to the fountain square where we had some wine and did a good session of people watching before getting super sleeping and heading back to our place.

Love A&E