When In Rome

/ Location: Florence, Italy
Allllrighty. So, where did I leave off last time? Oh, that's right. The Vatican!

We went to the Vatican City, which is quite cool just on its own, if you just walk in the square (or rather, circle) outside, but THEN you go inside St. Peter's Basilica and it just. gets. better. Seriously it is incredible in there. My neck hurt afterwards because I couldn't stop looking up/around all over the place. It's incredibly ornate and detailed, and even though there are loads of people in there, somehow it manages to retain a pretty silent feeling and atmosphere. It's quite cool. Aaaand of course we decided to scale the gazillion steps up to the dome, which is an interesting experience, because you walk up stairs and through hallways around the actual dome, so the walls are all slanted, causing you to have to walk on an angle, almost. Quite strange.
Dat Basilica.
These funny guard guys were all around the Vatican back entrances. Sweet outfits.
SERIOUSLY LOOK AT THIS THING.
Massive doors holy cow.
Mmmm, ceilings. 

The stuff around the edge of the dome is ALL. FREAKING. MOSAIC. WHAT.
Walking up to the dome. This photo was taken completely parallel  with the floor.
Da Vatican.
Da dome.
So, by the time we got out of the Basilica (for we had gotten a somewhat late start, not to mention I forgot my memory card at the hostel and didn't realize it until we were AT the Vatican- IDIOT- so we had to go back to get that, adding time to the day), everything was pretty much closing, so we decided to hop on the metro again and head to the Trevi Fountain, because that's something you gotta see "when in Rome." It was quite cool, don't get me wrong, but it was SUPER crowded, so ehhhh. But it was fine. And afterwards we indulged in some deeeelicious Italian food, which I am still thoroughly enjoying.
MEI people: We found Mr Williams. *THE CONCH*

The next day, we got up early(ish) and hopped on the high speed train down to Naples and Pompeii for the day! It was only about 2 hours to the gates of Pompeii, which was fantastic. And we sat across from a really cool guy on one of the trains, who said he studied in New Jersey for awhile (so he spoke super good English), and who acted as a bit of a tour guide for us by pointing out various sights as they went by on the train(i.e. cloud-obscured Mt. Vesuvius, the island of Capri, etc)! So we entered Pompeii and were utterly blown away by the size of it. We both thought that it would be probably a few ruins and some sort of interpretive center type thing, telling about Mt. Vesuvius' eruption, and then the park in which you can hike up the mountain. But, no. It. Is. MASSIVE.

The entire city itself was 64 hectares, and something like 44 hectares of it have been unearthed. FOURTY-FOUR HECTARES. That's huge! And you can actually walk down streets as they would have been back then, before the eruption buried everything. There are still walls of most buildings, and loads of pottery and pillars and such around as well. Quite amazing. You can even see chariot ruts in the streets, which is flipping amazing. They are even still excavating and restoring some of it- we saw people chipping rock and ash off of some of the buildings, which I also think is super cool. It's surreal to walk through the streets and imagine it before the eruption took place.
Ruins on ruins on ruins.
So many pots.
They had plaster casts of how they found bodies under the rubble. Really quite terrifying.
Some of the streets literally looked like they could still be in use.
So many different kinds of brick in the walls.
Mosaic floor in SUCH good condition it's hard to believe it was under rock and ash for 2000 years!


Unfortunately, due to the sheer size of the place, we walked around for six whole hours and didn't even cover half of it, so we were unable to do the hike up Mt. Vesuvius, which would have been cool. Then again, it was extremely cloudy and foggy and we couldn't really see the mountain at all, so I'm not sure how incredible the view would have been. However, it certainly would have been cool to say we'd done it! Oh well. Next time. ;)

The next day we set out in hopes of seeing the Sistine Chapel, which was definitely on the top of my list. When we got near it, we were told that it was closing at noon, but it was only about 1030, so we figured we'd be good to get in just in the nick of time. However, the thing is that they make you walk through the ENTIRE museum, which was cool, don't get me wrong, but crowded and for people (like us) trying to make it to the chapel- which was on the opposite end of the museum- it was quite a pain.

But we plodded along through the museum, rolling with the crowd, and as we got near the Chapel we got excited because we thought we were going to make it! And we walked through rooms snaking back and forth, only to come out to a large and long hallway, seeing no more signs pointing towards the chapel. So we asked one of the security guards which direction it was and he pointed back to we had just come from, and said that there was no way to get in now, it was closed. So, slightly distraught about that, we quickly left the stuffy museum, hopes dashed, in search of feel-better gelato.
A ceiling in the museum.
This hall was actually quite cool. Bunch of massive maps on tapestries of places around Italy, and this crazy cool ceiling!

I'd seen photos of this staircase but didn't know where it was, so it was sweet to see it! It's pretty dang cool.
And we certainly found feel-better gelato! At the Spanish steps, to be exact. Which are pretty cool also. And, as per Mr. Nickel's recommendation, after our delicious gelato, we went to the Keats/Shelly museum, which was awesome! It talked about Keats/Shelly and their lives, and the museum is actually inside the house where John Keats died, and you can go see his room. It was very cool for me, and reminded me of the English Lit trip last spring break. I love the Romantic Poets as well, so it was quite great to read and learn more about them, as well as seeing some of the poetry I actually studied in Lit in grade 12! Very cool.
Seen on a scooter. I like.
We ran into a large bubble show in a square.
Rather exciting!
Keats museum plaque.
Next, we headed towards the Pantheon. Aaaand quickly got sidetracked by a MASSIVE Lindt chocolate store, where we had hot chocolate which was literally that- melted chocolate. We had to drink it with spoons. It was incredible, and TJ also bought a jar of hazelnut chocolate spread, which we have since consumed with Ritz crackers. Mmmmmmm.

Anyways, the Pantheon. Was incredible. It's huge, and even though it's pretty much covered, except for the big hole in the ceiling, it has a distinctly open-air feeling, and it is actually a church. So it's a big round room, with alters and such around the perimeter. Was quite cool indeed. Interesting as well was the fact that the floor slants slightly downwards into the center of the floor, where there are drainage holes for when it rains!
The front entrance to the Pantheon.
INSIDE. So cool.

That angle. And that moon. Mm. 
And then the next day it was off to Florence, where we are now! And I shall tell you all about that in the next blog post, that is, if this one loads (our internet here is the very sketchiest). What I WILL tell you now is that we are staying in a freaking LUXURY hostel. Ok, maybe not really, but it does have a pool, sauna, full hot/cold buffet breakfast for only 6 euros, and the whole thing is only 11 euros a night! EXCUSE ME WHILE I DIE.

So yes! I will leave you with that, and get back to enjoying Florence, minus the grouchy old man in the room we are in.

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