4th of July at Vatican City

Happy 4th of July! I almost don't feel American being in Italy on the 4th of July. Don't worry we were invited to many parties celebrating the 4th of July but we passed them up. Instead we went to Vatican City.

We left early this morning to get there. When we arrived we were hounded by people trying to persuade us to go on a tour with them, I honestly don't think they understood the word NO. We actually decided to play a joke on one of them because we were tired of them bothering us. When he asked if wanted to go on the tour we asked him if there would be Otter Pops he was like "what?" that answered our question, it was a good laugh. The line was really long, it was like waiting in line for a roller coaster times ten. We were waiting in line for Musei Vaticani and the Sistine Chapel first.

The lines 

We finally got inside and it was incredible! This is my favorite museum of all the museums so far. The only problem is that I am "museumed" out at this point so I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. The works inside were remarkable.

Cool Interiors of Musei Vaticani

piece from Musei Vaticani

Dog at Musei Vaticani

see nothing ever goes out of style ;)

After walking through the museum we made it to the Sistine Chapel, which is best known for the Michelangelo piece titled, "The creation of Adam." Let me tell you it was breathtaking. They were really strict about cameras so I wasn't able to take a picture. Although there were a lot of people taking pictures I felt it would be disrespectful. Walking inside the Sistine Chapel was like walking into a painting it was beautiful!

View from window (sistine chapel)

View of Sistine Chapel 

While we were in the museum we lost 3 people on accident. So we went looking. We found 2 out of 3. 1 was still lost when we exited the museum. Poor Elyse we had no idea where she could be and it's not like we were in a small museum. The Vatican is HUGE! Plus we had no idea if she had left or not. So after waiting for her for a while we decided to move on to St. Peter's Square.

a view from outside the window at Musei Vaticani

Famous Spiral Staircase

Famous Spiral Staircase

Musei Vaticani

St. Peter's Square is incredible! When most people think of the Vatican this is what they think. St. Peter's Square is HUGE and there were GIANT PICTURES of the POPE. It was definitely the place to be if I were catholic. We decided to take a break for a little bit, then we got in line to enter St. Peter's Basilica. We were most interested in climbing to the top of the dome so that's what we did first.

St. Peter's Square

St. Peters Basilica

THAT's ME

St. Peters

The Guards 

The Pope

The view from the top was a site worth seeing!! I loved it! When were coming back down it was funny because we happened to interrupt a little romance between the guard and some girl. I think I got it on video by accident too.

A view of St. Peter's Square from the top

After going to the top we decided to look around. I cannot describe in words the details and beauty of St. Peters.

A view of the interiors 

The Vatican City was really cool and I am thrilled that I was able to see it.

Next we decided to take the bus back, unfortunately we got on the wrong bus so it was a long bus ride to the middle of no where, but the adventure is worth it in the end. It is all a learning process.

Probably the coolest store I have ever seen, just look at the name :) 

When we made it back home we went out for dinner. We got the usual, Pizza. Tonight was real fun at dinner! We really bonded and got to know each other better. It was a great Sunday Dinner. Then towards the end of the dinner Elyse told us about Phil being on his way, so we all went to the train station to look for him. It was midnight or so when we got there and well everything was shut down, the metro, the buses, and the trains so the only way Phil would have gotten to Rome would be taxi and no one has money for that. We were looking for Phil for a couple hours, then finally came back to the hotel to sleep. I sure hope he is ok.