We woke up in Padova around 9 AM, after getting into bed very late. The people that we were staying with served us breakfast. It was very good, with corn flakes, some kind of muffin, and crackers with jelly and butter. It was very generous, as we ate out on the terrace and I gave their husky dog more pets!
We left soon after, got a bus...I won the over/under game as the bus arrived 5 minutes under when we started keeping track...and went to the train station. We hopped on a train to Venice and took our last walk around. There was a little over an hour before our train left for Rome.
In our short walk, there was a church that was free to enter. This can be hard to find in Venice. There were a couple different rooms inside and a tomb like area, showing respect to Santa Lucia. She died at the age of 23, a martyr for the church. She is very well loved in Europe. In Sweden, they hold a big Santa Lucia celebration on the darkest day of the year because she represents light. I'm sure they do something similar around all of Europe, but I'm not 100% sure.
Santa Lucia tomb
After we left, we bought a magnet for our magnet collection of cool places we've been...and we got a little painting of the Bridge of Sighs. I couldn't resist...it was only 7 Euros.
We then hopped on our fast train to Rome. Nothing too interesting on this train ride, but there were cute older ladies sitting in the seats in front of us on the train. They talked about all kinds of things, Denzel Washington, Auschwitz, cars, traveling, lots of "tasty" men...they were great to listen to. I mostly read my math book, but it was fun to eaves drop every once in awhile. Also, Kevin finished a Mitch Rapp book on our train ride...American Assassin...He loves those books and highly recommends them.
When we arrived in Rome, we quickly got our Roma Pass (a Roma Pass costs about 36 Euros each for a three day pass...totally worth it as it includes free transportation, discounts, and two free exhibit entrances including the Colosseum without having to wait in line) and found our bus to our airbnb place. There was a major time crunch. It was about 4:30 PM. We had to meet our people at a church by 5...and then be at Vatican city by 7.
This is hard to do in Rome, as traffic and the amount of crowds is awful by this point. We hopped on a very crowded, hot, stinky bus...not knowing where our stop was as the bus didn't say. Luckily a very nice Italian man noticed our confusion and helped us out, as he was getting off at the same stop. Before the bus got too crazy, he was pointing out historic things on our drive and telling us a little history! It was great and relaxed my nerves a little. We arrived at our destination around 5:10...a little late...after a 40 minute bus drive from one that shouldn't have been that long...luckily our host was still at the church waiting for us!
She walked with us up to her place and helped give us directions to the Vatican...again using buses. They do have a metro system here, that we later came to appreciate more, as they are much faster, but get extremely crowded at night. Knowing that we had to use buses again, we took off, as it was now 5:30 PM.
We caught a bus...then another bus...and missed our stop to the Vatican because again the buses don't tell you where to get off...an Italian lady helped us out! Thank goodness for helpful people! Made it to Vatican city and had no idea where the museum entrance was! We tried what we now know is St Peter's basilica entrance! They pointed us around the Vatican..."follow the walls" they said. It was now 6:45 PM. I was not willing to run at this point as it was hot, I was wearing flip flops that sounded like firecrackers when I ran, and I didn't want to look like the movie Angels and Demons as we ran through the Vatican square. We walked and walked and walked! Passing food places, as we had not eaten since 11 am, and now it was nearly 7 PM. We found guards to the Vatican, they pointed us to keep walking, so we did. Finally at 7 pm...right on the dot...We found the Vatican museums! It was a sheer miracle! Because we had a reservation from online for 7 PM...We got to skip the line and go right on in!
The museums were great! You could probably spend all day there and still not know everything and have seen everything! We got an audio guide tour, but it was really dull and not my cup out tea.
My favorite room, was the Egyptian room. There were cool Egyptian rocks, statues, coffins...and mummies! Yes...mummies!!! And four jars with their innards inside them! It was awesome! Each jar has a different top to symbolize what was inside each one!
Awesome! Another favorite part was their rock zoo! They had so many statues of animals, some sculptures even tried to use color make the color of the animals as they worked to make it look more realistic! The detail of the stone was spectacular!
There were statues everywhere in the museum...tons...as not knowing the story behind them...I began to make my own up...as they were meant to tell stories! One statue was teaching an imaginary dog tricks, with her trick stick and tennis balls! Another statue...a God...was playing with water with a kitty in a jar! I kept going.
Anyways...lots of statues, artifacts, awesome clothes with pictures...even Jesus with a cat and dog...I'm determined to think they were his as he lived animals too, paintings...some by Salvador Dali and a cool hugging painting, Pompeii artifacts that a pope dug up, and the Sistine Chapel!
This room was beautiful...those are paintings on the ceiling, with hand carved frames around them
Salvador Dali painting...notice the melting images
Last picture before entering the Sistine Chapel
HUG...which we both needed at this point because we were exhausted
You can't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but it was cool to be standing where the next pope is elected, and the pope 's personal chapel. I saw the painting with God reaching out to Adam...the ceiling that took Michelangelo 4 years to complete! I saw the frescoes relating Jesus to Moses! I saw the wall with lots of naked people, that one pope demanded be covered by cloths/leaves, but then were later removed! It was all beautiful and worth the over two hours we spent there! The museums are a massive collection of the church and would be worth millions. I think that is the point...the church are showing how powerful they are by showcasing all their stuff! Anyways, I find the beauty in my eyes, and I didn't have to see and understand it all to know how amazing this art truly was.
After the Vatican museums, we finally went and had dinner, as it was 9 pm...10 hours since we had last eaten. We ate at an authentic Italian restaurant and I got Spaghetti carbonara and Kevin got a mixture dish of spaghetti, lasagna, and a ravioli of sorts! They were delicious, and our tummies were finally full and headaches gone. We walked back to the main Vatican square to see it at night...it didn't take on the same romantic effect as Venice.
We decided to come back another day and headed home. This time first by metro and then caught a bus! It was much MUCH faster!
We made it home by 11 pm, with tired feet and tired eyes. We took showers and then slept. It was glorious!
Ta ta for now!
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