Italia

Highlights:
Taking the metro! There is an underground mall at termini station (the main station) just like in japan. Of course it is very small in comparison.
It takes a very long time to get from the station entrance to he actual train. Joanna has estimated that it is about six stories under the streets.
Getting mobbed by people trying to sell us Vatican deals by promising to let us skip the lines.
There were no lines ( practically).
I had to hide my Swiss army knife before going through the security lines for st peter’s basilica because that was the only thing they didn’t allow inside. I was happy to see later that nobody had taken it!
Joanna using the lord’s name in vain as she entered the basilica (it was only an “oh my god”)
St. Peter’s basilica is huge….hugely amazing!
We then had lunch at a lovely restaurant so that we could have stamina and patience while in the musei vaticani.
We then noticed that the line which had stretched almost a quarter mile when we had arrived was now nonexistent. We then felt very good about ourselves because we picked the perfect time to go.
I again successfully hid and retreived my mini pink swiss army knife when entering the Vatican museum.
Room after room of amazing sculptures, paintings, frescoes, and tapestries left us numb and overwhelmed. There fifty-five rooms of MODERN art alone which we walked straight through following the signs for the Sistine chapel that start at the very beginning of the museum and lead through the entire thing. We’d see each sign, think oh it’s coming up now, only to be surprised with more great art but no chapel.
When we finally got to the chapel, it was completely packed with people and guards yelling at people constantly to be silent, not take pictures, and not sit on the steps.
After craning our necks looking up at the ceiling for so long, we could sympathize with Michaelangelo– who, did you know, went virtually blind and suffered permanent back and neck problems after his four years of work on the celebrated chapel ceiling?
After the museum we took the Metro back to the hostel where we bought supplies for bruscetta, plyed cards on the terrace (poker, betting with random objects we had on us), and then made and ate dinner.
Then we had a short but sweet converstion with one of our roomates who is from Mexico but lived for the ear in France on study abroad. ( tara she lived in ROUEN)
Now we’re going to go get dessert (the tiramisu here is supposed to be amazing)
Ok bye!

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