Popes, Gladiators and driving Nuns!

As promised it was hot as could be expected today, so to beat that we made it an early morning at the Vatican, we were there bright and early at 7am! The first stop was St Peter’s Basilica, luckily there wasn’t really anyone inside so it was nice being able to maneuver around without the huge crowds. Again I’ll leave the pictures to do the talking. After touring the inside of the basilica, we decided to climb the 400 stairs to the top of the dome for a great view of the city of Rome. The climb up was pretty taxing but well worth it. After the decent we toured the Vatican grottos that house the tombs of the Popes, the most popular being Pope John Paul II, the most recent Pope to pass away. Following that tour we made our way over to the Vatican Museums and since we were smart enough to make reservations, we were able to bypass the line that was over a mile long. The tour was amazing and somewhat spiritual and of the Sistine Chapel is everything that it is built up to be but they didn’t allow pictures so Google it if you want to see it. There are a ton of artifacts and items to view in there and it would take several trips to see it all, we stuck with the items from Antiquity that have been in the museum’s possession forever. Once we left the museums, it was around the time that the heat was unbearable so we hid out in the room for a bit then made our way to Ancient Rome. The first stop was the Coliseum, the enormous complex built to entertain thousands of Romans whether by reenacting famous battle scenes or gladiator spectacles. Again the pictures can do better describing it than I can. After the Coliseum, we were headed over to the Roman Forum, the grounds of Ancient Rome but it was closed! So we grabbed dinner, headed back and are packing to head down to Naples/Sorrento tomorrow. I’m putting the pictures up shortly. Ciao.