Exploring Vatican City

Today we explored Vatican City, and got to see the new pope deliver a Papal Audience.

We started our day with coffee from the cafe beneath our apartment, and then immediately headed out to Vatican City as we expected big crowds. Every Wednesday the pope does a Papal Audience in St. Peter’s Square, and when we arrived the square was packed with people wanting to listen.

We found a couple good vantage points, and enjoyed listening for a bit. It was interesting people watching, as the crowd was a very eclectic mix, and there were translators so that what the pope said could be heard in English. Shockingly we did see an older woman faint as she walked past us, but the nearby medical staff were there to help her almost immediately.

We decided to get a sandwich as we hadn’t eaten yet(had to make sure there was no fainting in our group!) and found an absolutely stellar panini spot outside the walls of Vatican City.

We had a reservation for a tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, but it wasn’t until a bit later and there were no early admittances, so we did a lap around the entire Vatican after our paninis (there’s a small sidewalk lip around the massive wall that surrounds Vatican City). The walk was a bit hot, but now we can both say we’ve walked around an entire country, as Vatican City is the smallest country in the world 😂.

After we completed our lap of Vatican City, we headed into the Vatican Museums for our tour. Unfortunately, when Chris went to book our tour English was sold out. Given today was the only day we could go to the Vatican, Chris opted to get us on an Italian tour. It actually worked out pretty well though, as we put our earpieces next to google translate on our phones, and were able to understand the bulk of the tour! The tour covered many grand pieces of art, tapestries, and sculptures, and ended with the Sistine Chapel which we found quite impressive.

Following the Sistine Chapel, we headed to St. Peter’s Basilica to check out the interior. It was absolutely beautiful inside, and definitely the nicest church either of us had seen. We opted to pay admission to climb to the top of St. Peter’s dome, which was super unique as it allowed us to climb a massive staircase that spit us out inside the interior of the dome. A second set of stairs put us on top of the dome, and gave us a bird’s eye city of not only Vatican City, but also Rome in the distance. We absolutely loved the climb and views, and both agreed it was our favorite part of the day!

After finishing our dome climb, we opted to head back home for dinner. On the way we grabbed some quick drinks. We headed back to the neighborhood we enjoyed gelato in the night prior and had delightful pizza paired with Italian beer. In Rome the pizza places have a huge selection of precooked pizzas for you to choose from, and when you make your pick they cut you a slice and throw it in the oven- it’s a really fun experience that allows for a lot of customization.

After pizza we stopped at a bakery and picked up various types of cannoli. We enjoyed those with an episode of White Lotus, and called it a night, as tomorrow we have a long travel day driving into Tuscany.Baca lagi