Day 2: Vatican City and walking tour of Rome

Day 2 started off early. We began with a tour of Vatican City, where I got to see all of this beautiful art at the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Bascilica. It was absolutely gorgeous. However, I wouldn't recommend going to see the Sistine Chapel the day after a long plane ride. Why? Because I had this awful kink in my neck, so it was like, "Oohh.. ceiling pretty... OUCH! Neck cramp!"

Statue that looks like Bill Clinton!

Typical hallway in Vatican Museum

Bath of Nero... apparently he used to fill it up with goat's milk, the bath would rest on a spinny floor, and servants would be underneath, turning the floor while Nero bathed in goat's milk, drank wine and had orgies... lovely man.

Trompe d'oeil... that's painted on, not carved!

La Pieta, Michaelangelo's second most famous sculpture (after the David, which I saw but was not allowed to take a picture of!)

Next was the ridiculously long walking tour of Rome. We walked all around this giant city, but it was rewarding knowing that I very likely walked off all calories I would be consuming during the entire trip. We visited the Colosseum (really cool), the Pantheon (really cool), the Spanish steps (eh, you can miss those) and the Trevi Fountain (amazing looking). Here are the photo highlights:

Colosseum... the first wonder of the Medieval World that I saw on this trip!

Pretty dome inside the Pantheon.

Memorial for Victor Emmanuel.

Illegal picture of inside the Pantheon.

Trevi at night... although impressive during the day, it becomes way more impressive during the night!

I continued the group with a small group of girls from my tour. The British girls were absolutely hilarious, especially because one had never met Americans before... we spent the night comparing accents between the two countries over disgusting Italian food. Yes, it exists. We tried doing the hole in the wall method. Didn't work. Anything we tried to order was fresh out. So, the waiter suggested, "well, why don't I give you a sample plate of 5 different dishes." Thinking he would bring us 5 different bowls of pasta (For 6 girls), we agreed. Instead, he brought out plates with 5 dollops of pasta on it. Like, they were far from touching each other there was that little. This might be passable in a fancy restaurant, but the food was not good. It tasted like Pasta Roni that had sat there all day, everyone's leftovers that they didn't want. It was gross and disappointing. So, my advice to you, don't eat at the Friend Cafe... they are no friends to us.