We slept in until 10ish again today, which was nice. We at some breakfast in the B & B and had a few espressi as well.
We really wanted to do the Capella Sistina (Sistine Chapel) and hoped that the lines weren’t too long today. Thankfully they weren’t too long and we got through the lines within 20 minutes or so. Of course we had to go through the Vatican Museum before we got to the Sistine Chapel and it took a very long time. There were some pretty cool rooms that were filled with Rafael and Michangelo’s works which was awesome to see. Here are a few pictures inside…
Some of the statues inside were enormous…
The inside was pretty packed, but I thought there would be more people. As we continued to walk towards the Sistine Chapel, there were numerous rooms with Tapestries and Map rooms, and of course more shops. This next picture is an old map of Sicily, which I thought was pretty interesting…
A few more of my favorite pictures from inside the Vatican…
Once we finally made it to La Capella Sistina, I was amazed about how enormous this was. (INFORMATION) It truly was an amazing place, and I am very happy that we went there. However, it was absolutely packed with people…we literally couldn’t move at all. I tried taking a few pictures inside, which of course was prohibited. Only one turned out decent...
After the Sistine Chapel we stopped and had a few coffees and then wanted to walk down by the water to a place called La Isola Tiberina which was pretty cool. According to the signs that I read, this island had mills as far back as 109 A.D.! I took a picture of the sign so I could remember what the significance of it was.
Here are a few pictures around that area…
We walked around that area for a while and just followed the map to some places that looked interesting. We walked over Ponte Fabricio, which was a bridge that had been around since the Roman times, which was interesting to learn.
We came across some more Roman ruins…
We stopped at Basilica Di San Nicola in Carcera and went inside this extremely old church. Apparently the underground is filled with ruins, but we didn’t see anyone working inside, and had no idea where to go for them.
Then we walked to San Maria in Cosmedin and we walked around the back of the Colosseo and the Arco di Tito and took some awesome pictures of the Palatino.
We wanted to walk to San Giovanni Laterano which was pretty close to where we were at, but we ended up taking a very local road there, which was cool. We walked by a hospital, a military base, and a few neighborhoods. It was interesting to have the opportunity to see a more local part of Rome, which is full of tourists right now.
We made it to San Giovanni in Laterano which was enormous.
After that we stopped and grabbed some pasta for lunch. I had a simple tortellini dish with pesto sauce, and dad got tortellini with meat sauce. In my opinion, the pasta out here is much different than it is in the US. I feel like the pasta out here is much better than it is at home, but also much lighter and healthier. I can definitely say that in general the Italian food out here is much better on all levels that it is back at home.
We took the metro back from San Giovanni and then stopped in a few shops on the way back. The metro system in Italy is very easy to use, but I think that the metro in Barcelona is much nicer. By nicer I mean the inside of the stations and inside the metro is nicer. The Italian people are much friendlier than they are in Barcelona. In Barcelona I feel like the people are much more “shady” on the metro, especially at night. The Rome metro seems to be much safer, but then again I have only been on it a few times so I cannot really compare them I guess.
We came back to the B & B to relax for a little bit, and then we went out to dinner. Rosana came in to talk to us and we asked her for a dinner recommendation. She suggested a restaurant called La Pancia Felice, and she told us that it was a much different restaurant than any one we had been to before. It was very close to Borgo Pio, just a street down or so...and it was basically a family restaurant. They only had a menu for appetizers because the cook prepared different meals every day. The food was excellent and it was very easy to tell that the food was homemade. After we finished eating I heard someone call my name. I looked up and it was a few of my friends who were staying right down the street from where we were in Rome. A few of the girls I know from class, and the other two I met when I was in Madrid! They stopped and talked to us for a few minutes, and then went to eat I believe. It was crazy that we ran into them because there really was nobody on the streets!
Here are a few pictures from dinner...
Homemade tiramisu!
Afterr dinner we made our way back to the bed and breakfast and I couldn't believe how fast the week flew by. We packed our suitcases and bags so that we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. We called it a night and planned to get up kind of early so we had some time to walk around before we had to leave at 11 to head to the airport.
We woke up early like we had planned and went down to the cafe next door and had some cappuccini and croissants. We walked around the Vatican one last time and then walked down to the water. We headed back to the bed and breakfast to get our suitcases and wait for the driver to pick us up.
Well I definitely loved our week in Italy as it was great seeing my dad and Italy was everything that I thought it would be. I'm happy we decided to only stay in Rome because we had the opportunity to see everything we wanted to and much more as well. I am looking forward to visiting Italy again within the next few years, and continuing my Italian studies as well. I can't believe that I have less than three weeks left abroad, this semester sure has flown by. Well I need to try to get my school work in order, and will post within the next few days hopefully.
Ciao
