Today we woke up early to take the metro to Vatican City. We realized we were actually visiting ten countries because The Vatican is separate from Rome. We also learned that the major Basilicas are also part of the Vatican sort of like embassy’s. Our wait in line was about 40 minutes to get into the Museo. Of all of the museums we visited the Vatican had by far the most confusing. It was basically a series of dots and arrows with no sense of size or orientation of the rooms. Good thing Alison and I weren’t on a schedule because we got lost a number of times.

My favorite room was the Egyptian gallery. They had so many sarcophaguses and had two bodies on display. They also had untold amounts of sculptures and paintings. Ignore what I said two sentences ago. My favorite room was a hall of tapestries that ran from floor to ceiling.

We walked around the corner to get to St. Peter’s Basilica and the line went around 3/4 of the square. Although we were disappointed that we wouldn’t be making it into the Basilica we felt like we had a good enough sense of the Vatican and moved on.

We took the metro to Piazza del Popolo and walked down Via Di Ripetta towards The Pantheon and Piazza Navona. The Piazza was quite full with a lot of peddlers surrounding the fountain which was annoying. After looking at the street art we walked about two blocks, came around a corner and suddenly saw The Pantheon. Unlike the other historical sites we had visited, this is not fenced in, totally free, and set in among the other buildings.

When we got back to our room at the hostel, Alison and I sat down to plan the next day activities which turned into a three hour nap for me! When I woke up we chatted with some of our roommates and went to bed.