My big fat Italian trip- Day 5

We started our day at the Vatican. No biggie. I also figured out how to type an apostrophe on these keyboards. ''''''''. Yeah!

Anyway... The Vatican is pretty neat (to make a huge understatement). We got to go through the Vatican Museum, which has a wealth of historical artifacts, sculptures, busts, paintings, tapestries, etc. The first exhibit was of Ancient Egypt. That was incredible. I had never seen real hieroglyphics (except on the History Channel) and it makes you take a step back and apprecitate what an advanced civilization existed. We passed by burial goods (charms, scrolls, gold, you name it), some sarcophagi, and even a preserved mummy! There was a lot of information about how they lived, died and developed. the statues to their gods seemed endless. I could have easily spent an entire day looking around but we had our eye on the ultimate prize: the Sistine Chapel. The next exhibit was of the Romans. The time spent creating all of those statues and busts is inconceivable. Each one had an incredible amount of detail and the attention to proportion was something else. It was as if plaster was just placed over a real body. Some of them were a bit unnerving because they had pupils and were lifelike--in a marble-colored, stiff kind of way.

After what seemed like miles of walking we made our way toward the Sistine Chapel. Little did we know there were scores more to travers. We passed by beautiful tapestries depicting biblical events (all the tapestries made in Brussels curiously). There were also gian maps of Italy and its' provinces. Then, finally, we arrived. It was indeed a sacred place, not just for the religious but for anyone with an appreciation for art and architecture. No photography or talking allowed. The latter was not really an issue for when you walk into that astonishing work of Michaelangelo, all words are taken away. The only thing I knew about the art was the famous reaching out of god and man. Imagine my amazement seeing the whole thing. It was difficult enough trying to find that one image among the hundreds of others! It was such a beautiful sight I didn't even notice the strain in my neck from bending back to take it all in. Before we left a German lady told Mike we shoulc be cheeky and blend into one of the tour groups so we could get into St. Peter's Basilica. Boy was it worth it. I don't even think I can describe it. It was just exhausting walking around. Everything was doubled or tripled in size; the ornate decor, the blinding gold-encrusted side chapels, and the tomb of St. Peter himself was just looming.

We left the Vatican after who know how many hours. We grabbed a quick bite and made our way to the Colosseum. It was quite a qalk across town but it was worth it. When getting my first glimple of the massive structure, I had a flashback to 9th grade Global History. This was the same perpective the cover ouf our textbook pictured! We went on a tour and leared quite a bit aboutt he building and its' uses throughout the the ages. It was very instresting to hear about what else happend beside the well-known Gladiatorial fights and we spent a couple hours wandering on our own. After that very long day we headed to our next hostel, which was outside of Rome in the town of Ciampino, since we had to catch a flight at at 6:30 the next morning. Ugh. So we caught a train out there and found out we go on the wrong one. Uh oh. Apparently it was an express train that passed our stop but we didn't see that anywhere on the platform and it was the train the ticket office told us to board. Grr. So, we're 30 minutes outside of Roma and the train finally stops so we got off, along with a few girls from Amsterdam who were also trying to find the Ciampino stop. As we waited for the next train back toward Roma we all got to chatting. They were on a trip from their university for an art history class. They were really nice and told us we absoutely must make it to Amsterdam. We'll see. So the train comes and we make it to Ciampino so now we have to find our bus but that came right as we walked out of the station. Hey, things are looking up! False. Our driver must have had a death wish because he was roaring down the streets and peeling out after ever stop. Even the natives we saying their prayers. Our hostel was just outside of town and we get into the middle of nowhere and the bus comes screeching to a halt. The driver turns around and tells us this is the end of the line and our stop. We look out and see absolutely nothing but an open field and an industrial plant. Ooook. We found the hostl after going around a bend and through a gate. To give you a visualization about how out in the middle of nowhere it was, there was an airplane in the parking lot...Despite it being the middle of nowhere it was really nice and much bigger than I expected. We were pretty starving at this point and the staff said pretty much everything (not that there was much) around was closed but there might be some food at the gas station by the road...about half a mile away. It was pretty sketchy walking down an unlit road but we finally go to the gas station and spotted a restaurant that seemed to be open. The smells coming from the place made me wide-eyed. We passed by the buffet up front, which was filled with mozarell balls, fresh olives, seafood and sooo much more. We got a table and ordered as quickly as we could. I started out with some bruschetta and winde. They say hunger is the best seasong...it also helps to have a mind-blowingly good meal too. I had risotto in a scampi cream sauce, made to perfection and piping hot. My second meal was a cheese. But this was no ordinary cheese. It was a huge slab of smoked mozarella, baked in an oven and topped with watercress. mmmm. I demolished it all. Such a satisfying meal after a pretty disppointing culinary experience in Roma. We sauntered back to the hostel, bellies full and passed out. 6:30 flight to Venice. Yay!