Day in the Vatican

Today we woke up and took our time getting ready because we had to be at the Vatican at 12. We wandered the streets and did a little souvenir shopping for ourselves and our family and friends. As we were walking to the Vatican we spotted a place we wanted to go to for dinner in the Piazza Navona.

We arrived at the Vatican and the line to get into the Basilica was extremely long so we headed to the museums first. We bought our tickets ahead of time so it took us only about 10 minutes to get in. It was so crowded and we looked around but a lot of the exhibits were closed so we made our way to the sistine chapel. We had to go through about a 100 rooms of sculptures and artwork before we got to the chapel. It was so hot and stuffy I just wanted to get there. Once we were in the chapel I was sorta disappointed because I thought the finger part was going to be huge but it was small and all the paintings were broken up by molding. It was still breathtaking. One of the workers let us out a secret way to cut the line to the Basilica. It was nice to be able to get right in.

My mind was blown by how huge it was!!!!!! I can't even describe how large it was!!! It was so great!!! I loved it. I really liked how they were strict about the dress code. Also they had a room with the blessed sacrament and this was strictly for prayer. It was nice that there was so much respect for the Lord in his home. It was relaxing and nice to get to pray there.

There were a lot of Popes buried there too. It was a little eerie. Afterwards I hit up the gift shop and we went shopping near the Vatican city.

We also grabbed gelato at an infamous shop outside the Vatican walls. It was called Old bridge. The line was really long. It was so worth it. The workers were hot, the ice cream was cheap, and the ice cream was excellent. I got dark chocolate, pistachio, and caramel...so yummy. There were these pompous Americans that had "connections" inside so they got to cut. What a way to keep up our reputation. When we were getting gifts I found a cute mug for myself. I like to collect mugs and this one said I love Italia with a vespa on it :)

We went back to the hotel and cleaned up. Then we headed to dinner in the Piazza. It was perfect. Our waiter was annoying cause he took forever but I had great food. Focaccia with buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes. It was of course really good. Then we went to the Pantheon and we got dessert. I got a cannoli because I had to have one! I was in Italy!!! It was delicious. We took our time and soaked in where we were. It was a great end to our trip. We headed back and got a good night sleep.