Today was sleep in day! Our reservation for the Varican Muesem wasn't until 3pm and we just planned to explore the city, so why not catch up on a little sleep. We needed it after waking up at 6am for the past week. Our hotel is paired with the cafe on the corner of our block so guests get their breakfast (the second "B" of B&B) there complimentary. We had chocolate croissants and bread and jam. I true Italian breakfast. We were hoping to walk through more ruins, but our tickets didn't work today. So, we headed towards the Tiber River to make our way up to The Vatican. We accidentally stumbled upon the Bocca Della Verita, the stone face (think the movie Roman Holiday) where you stick your hand in the mouth and the myth says your hand will get bitten off if you're a lier. We of course got photos there and then walked up the river and over to Vatican City.
I knew that Vatican City was in Rome. I knew that I was going to see it on this trip. I knew that I would go inside Saint Peter's Basilica. I knew all of this, yet nothing prepared me for today. We crossed the river and turned the corner and there, rising above the other buildings at the end of the street was St. Peter's. I instantly had tears in my eyes; I've seen it on TV, but it's one of those things that I never thought I'd seen in person. It was a "pinch me" moment.
We headed into the church, but because of time had to run over to the Vatican Museum to make our reservation. The museum was beautiful! If I remember correctly it's around 7 miles of artifacts and history. It was all stunning! The history was mind blowing! The last room in the museum was the Sistine Chapel. The zoomed in photograph of God and Adam's fingers touching (where Gid made man) has hung in my parents room for as long as I can remember. Suddenly, I was gazing up at the original all thought up and painted by Michelangelo. We sat in the chapel for maybe 30 minutes; there were so many details to take in. We've been using Rick Steve's audio guide, so we listened to that throughout the museum, chapel and basilica. Using his tip of going through the tour exit door, we were able to slip right back into St. Peter's Basilica and skip the security lines.
Back in the basilica, I was awed once again by the the grandness of it; it's huge! However, because of the way it was designed, it feels somewhat intiment. Kristi and I picked up on the audio tour where we had left off earlier when we suddenly heard singing. I walked up to the security guard and asked if there was a mass being held. There was! He let us past the gate, right past the main alter under the dome and back to the smaller alter under St. Peter's chair--let me just pause and say that i was having an out-of-body experience. I sat down in the pew, looked up at the light streaming in through the stained glass window of a single white dove and started crying again. I couldn't believe I was there; I felt so blessed. How I wish I could have called my grandmother and spoken to her about it! She would have loved it, but I felt her sitting right there with me, which made me cry even more. The mass was in Italian and it was beautiful! The choir was from Philadelphia and did an amazing job. It was all just so surreal. I can't even put it into words--and, yes, I'm crying as I'm writing this.
We stumbled upon the cutest piazza on our way back and decided to grab dinner. The piazza was a perfect little square with restaurant after restaurant. In Italy, they have a person (or two) standing next to the displayed menu and they try to convince you to eat at their establishment. Well, we seemed to be the target of everyone's attention. We were yelled at, taken by the arm and sweet talked by nine different restaurants, four of which offered us free champaign. Kristi was the decision maker tonight, so she chose a place (champaign and a free appetizer). We felt bad though because we only got salads, but we were saving it for gelato. We finally made our way back to our piazza, which is about a 45minute walk from The Vatican and grabbed gelato. It was so good!!! I swear, Rome has had the best gelato of any of the cities... No complaints from those cities though!
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