Rome, Day 3

Our last day in Rome, we woke up early to go to the Vatican. The kids were enthralled to learn it is another country, and had lots of questions about the pope and Catholicism. We took a bus to the Vatican and had the first tickets of the day at 8:30 am, and I am glad we did because when we left there was a huge line for people even with tickets. The Vatican museums is so huge that we did not get to see nearly half of what was there, but got a good smattering of Renaissance paintings, sculptures, frescos, and tapestries. There was even an ancient Egyptian exhibit, and the kids loved seeing the real mummy! I took too many pictures to pick out even some of my favorites, and I probably could have spent two days in the Vatican museums alone. The ceilings were amazing, and each one was so different. The pictures of the ceilings I took just don’t capture the depth and grandiosity of the paintings and frescoes.

At the end of the Vatican museums was the Sistine Chapel, which was just magical. Just like at the Pantheon, I was expecting this to be so crowded, but there were only handfuls of people in there. We stayed in here much longer than expected since it was practically empty and we just couldn’t get enough of the frescoes. Even the kids were in awe. Since we aren’t allowed to take pictures in here, I will just let you imagine the splendor of the chapel with the iconic Last Judgement (which was enormous) and God stretching out his finger for the creation of Adam.

From here we went over to Saint Peter’s Basilica. We did the climb to see the dome and to go to the top of the cupola, and we paid a little extra to take an elevator up the first 200 steps. There were still over 300 steps to get to the top! I didn’t think Zoey was going to do it, but she said she wanted to. It was a little claustrophobic in the narrow stairway that curved around the side of the dome, and Willow thought it was the best thing ever climbing up all those steps. The kids loved seeing the view of Rome from the top of the cupola, and the breeze sure felt nice after climbing all those stairs. We went to the basement level where the popes are entombed, and Willow kept asking about the ‘pope in the box’.

We then walked past the Castel Sant’Angelo and across the river back to the left side where our apartment is. We ate at a restaurant with a great view of the Castel and got, what else…pizza and pasta! Ronin had been asking for two days for an “Indiana Jones hat”, or these straw hats that all the tourist shops sell. They were not expensive so we bought him one, and Willow a little fan since we promised her we would get her one after the fan she got for fourth of July ripped. We got back to the house early and rested, packed up, and got ready for the next stop on our trip…Sorrento.

Here are some extra pictures of our house in Rome. Except for the cold water shower the first day, it was a great place for us to stay. You can see my mom doing some sink laundry and hanging up the clothes; the kids liked helping with the sink laundry!