Rome and Vatican

My Brothers 23rd birthday in Rome, WHAT? We both went to bed pretty early last night so we could get up early today. We wanted to spend our entire free day in Rome just walking and sightseeing. By 1030 it was already 24 degrees! We bought sunscreen back in Madrid, so we sat at a Café lathering it on. We picked a few monuments on Google maps we wanted to see and bought tickets for the Vatican Museum and sistine chapel for 3:00! After a coffee, we began our treck. It was so hard to stay focused on our original plan because every street has something mind blowing on it. We managed to make it to the pantheon, which was super cool. The pantheon dome is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. It was built in 126 AD. That's pretty insane to me. We didn't go inside because we wanted to see as much as possible. Next, we went to Monument to Victor Emmanuel II. This building isn't as old (built in the 1800s), but it was just as impressive. This building was made for one reason. It's just a monument to the first king of a unified Italy. Maybe over the top, maybe not. The statues outside were some of my favorites I've seen on this trip. They're so big and just so impressive. Inside, there is a soldier buried somewhere named the unknown soldier. He's named that because he was so badly injured in the Great War that he was unrecognizable. They buried him in there to represent all the lost lives of Italians. I thought that was pretty cool. Next was the trevi Fountain. I thought the colleseum was busy. I've never seen so many people on one street. We just pushed our way through to get right up to the fountain. If dudes with rifles weren't on stand by, I'd go for a swim. It was so hot it was almost 30 degrees. After taking a few photos of the fountain, we stopped for a much needed beer and sandwich. Right across the street was the place ceasar was assinated. So yesterday, we got to see where he was cremated, and today, we saw where he was killed. We had to continue on the main goal, the Vatican. We had to meet the group at 230 so we needed to be early. Walking outside of the Vatican, we saw so many people lined up waiting to get in. Jokes on them we had skip the line tickets. It feels good walking past all of them lol. We got into the museum and had to go through another airport like security check. Once we got through, the first thing we saw was an ancient Egyptian museum. We read that one of the popes just thought they were dope, so he opened a museum for them in the Vatican. We saw tablets and artifacts from almost 2000bc. There were even mummy's which were so cool. We wondered through the museum, looking at different eras through time. This museum was massive. It had everything from the Egyptians to van Gough paintings. After walking around for a few hours, we finally got to the sistine chapel. The sistine chapel was probably one of the only reasons I wanted to go to the Vatican, so I was really excited. Even though everything before was awesome, I don't think anything there beats the sistine chapel. It was so beautiful inside. I tried walking in with my camera out, not knowing you couldn't record or take pictures, so the guy immediately told me not to. Sucks to be him because I took like 40 pictures and videos. It was so strict that you weren't even allowed to talk inside. The detail and depth in the painting are so cool to see in person. There were parts that looked like it was 3D pictures dont do it justice. We stood in the middle of the room for about an hour before we left. Another country under our belt in 4 hours lol. I've officially been to the two smallest countries in the world. We took the train back towards the hostel. That was an experience. They only have 2 or 3 train lines because anytime they try to excavate, they find more ruins underground. The train cars we packed with sweaty Italians and about 10 minutes away, 2 guys walked on with a speaker playing their music. It was my nightmare. Rome is the only place I've been so far where I felt like if I'm not careful, I'll get my pockets picked. Obviously, nothing happened. It's just me being paranoid. After the museum we went to pearses birthday dinner. We went to this nice place, just a block away from the hostel. We split a pitcher of beer, and I had some carbonara for dinner. Today we are feeling better so we could actually taste the food and it was so good. I had panocatta for dessert again because it's too good. Becs planned a big celebration at the bar across the road from the hostel for Pearse's birthday. The theme was "shit lemon shirt" because of sorrento and at a bar called yellow bar. I think Pearse and I won best dressed for sure lol. We both bought cheap dresses there, and some of the guys were supposed to do it with us, but only one other guy did. It's crazy when I cross dressed I got more compliments from women than I have my entire life. Also, thanks to a random guy for ruining with Pearse Nick and i The bar was so much fun. We played beer pong and foosball downstairs danced and socialized with people who were leaving the next morning to go back home. It's kind of sad seeing some of the people go. Good ridens to a couple, though.Read more