Saturday, May 28, 2011

And on the 7th Day We Forgot to Rest!

In case you didn't know, today is my 33rd bday and Brad surprised me at midnight with a "cake"...


What a sweetheart! It was really a Mars bar but it was an awesome surprise! Thanks B, love you!


This being our final full day in Rome I saved the best for last. We booked a private tour of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters Basilica. We met up with our tour guide...


For the life of me I can't remember his name, so we will call him Stefano! Stefano was amazing and we learned this right off. Th bat when he made one call and we got to skip this...


We were told it was a 3 hour wait just to get into the Vatican Museum!


No, there is no time for that! Also as soon we we got in, we got these fancy headset thingies so we could hear Stefano...


There was waaay to much to see at the Vatican museum, but I'll try and give you the highlights...


Vatican city is a lot bigger than you think, but it is still the smallest country in the world...


Apparently one of the old popes was Al Capone...


According to Stefano, this cafe is the worst pizza in Rome...


The Vatican guards work really hard as well...


And this is a famous pinecone, and no that part is not a joke but I really thought it was...

And then there are all the statues...


This is the hall of statues, enough said...


When Christianity became the major religion of Rome they cut off all the boy parts from the statues...


Except this guys jumbo junk because he was Priapus, the God of Fertility. He was sort of like ancient Viagra!

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, there was also a lot of art and stuff too...


This was the map room because it was well, full of maps. The Italians aren't big on subtlety. Also the ceiling was pretty awesome.

Then we moved onto all of the paintings by Raphael, which were also pretty spectacular...


Raphael was so impressed with Michaelangelo and his work on the Sistine Chapel, that he put him in some of his paintings. He is the bored looking guy in the front. And I know it's childish, but all the names of these guys just made me think of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Anyhoo on with the tour! We next went into the Sistine Chapel, but we weren't allowed to take pictures in there. Ray didn't even risk it because there was a guy constantly yelling "SILENCE PLEASE, NO PHOTO!!!"

Which when you think about it, he was really the only one making all the freaking noise, so if he just shut up, it would have actually been pretty quiet.

The last part of the tour was St. Peter's Basilica, and WOW it was way bigger and more impressive than I thought it would be...


The way the light bounced off everything was jus beautiful...


It was like the ceiling was made of gold...


This is the inside of the big dome...


That is the light coming in through the central occulus, just beautiful...


It is really just a breathtaking place...


They had also just moved the body of Pope John Paul II into the Basilica. It was obvious that Italians really loved him because his image is everywhere, and I honestly don't remember seeing a picture of the new Pope anywhere.

After we left the Basilica we went out into St. Peter's Square. There we got an awesome view of the Basilica...


Amazing...


Basilica Monkey Arms...


And this is the Swiss Guard, the Vatican Police. The uniform looked familiar to me and then it hit me...



See! For those of you not in the know, that is the Uniform for the fast food joint Hot Dog on a Stick!

Speaking of hot dogs we were starving! So we parted ways with Stefano and went to get some food...


We were pretty exhausted and starving...


More exhausted than starving clearly, but the food was delicious, as usual...


Bucatini with prosciutto and tomato...


And Mamala had her linguini and clams! So good! Now we are off to pack and relax before the fam takes me out for a birthday dinner! Ciao!

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Location:Rome Italy

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