We Took the Metro to a New Country

What a local sort of day yesterday (Thursday). We needed stamps and stood around for 45-minutes in the post office waiting to buy them! We had lunch in a bistro down the block then spent the afternoon browsing in the stores down the street. We made ourselves a dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches (or as we decided to call them, cheese paninis!), we learned how to do laundry in our all-Italian machine (including learning how to translate Celsius to Fahrenheit, and how to air dry our clothes on a rack in the living room). After dinner we played cribbage in our square and watched people for the evening. It was a pleasant day.

Today, Friday, we went to the Vatican (which is not a building like many people might think, but rather the grounds, and whole other country, that all the churchy stuff sits on).

First stop was the Vatican Museum. These are tons of rooms and hallways that have all kinds of neat things: sculptures, amazing tile mosaics, gorgeous painted ceilings, beautiful courtyards, even Egyptian artifacts

Next stop, the Sistine Chapel, site of the very famous "Last Judgement" and the ceiling frescos (which we don't know the name of, although, the incredibly famous "Creation of Man" is one of them). It is an impressive sight!

After leaving the Sistine Chapel we headed for St. Peters Basilica. We decided to get to the church via the Cupola tour for 5€... Holy man, greatest decision ever!! Not only did we get to climb to the top of the dome and look down on the basilica from over 400-ft, but we also got to go to the very top of the dome on the OUTSIDE for a top-of-the-world look at the city! Truly amazing! The climb up was exhausting and hilarious (because as we climbed the stairs the walls started curving in on us so we had to walk leaning on a side wall!) and totally worth it! (However, if you are wider than 2-ft, taller than 6-ft, or the least bit claustrophobic, it might not be for you.)

Finally we made it to the Basilica. It is an incredible church; like 10 churches in 1, really. There are tons of little nooks and crannies set up like their own church area. The sculptures are amazing, the ceilings are amazing, the walls are amazing, basically, it's pretty amazing!! The cool thing is that every picture we took has sun rays streaming through them like you can never seem to capture on camera anywhere else! Weird, huh?!

Leaving the Vatican we also truncated a picture Jenni photoshopped to convince Amy to come to Rome. That will be a fun before and after!

We had dinner, came home to do more laundry, went out for a Magnum bar, and prepare for our first upcoming side-trip! We leave tomorrow for Croatia via train and ferry!! Don't worry if you don't hear from us for a few days! We will be back on Thursday.

Quote of the day:
Jenni: "I just took a picture of a pretty vase!"
Passing tour guide: "Anything that looks like a vase in this room is actually a cremation urn!"
Jenni: "Ooooh, I guess I just took a picture of a pretty cremation urn... Yuck..."

Pictures:
1) Trying to figure out where the detergent goes in this crazy Italian washing machine (which BTW holds about 3-shirts and 2-pairs of underwear... Our jeans may come home stinky!)
2) One of the incredible ceilings! This whole ceiling is small individual paintings for about 150-ft (we estimate!).
3) "The Last Judgement" by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. You aren't really allow to take pictures here, but...
4) The ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel.
5) From the top catwalk of the St. Peters Basilica cupola overlooking the church.
6) Top-of-the-world! Overlooking the city from the top of St. Peters cupola!
7) Light pouring into St. Peters Basilica through the dome.
8) For you facebookers, try to find an old (poorly) photoshopped picture of us like this on FB and let us know how we did on the recreation!!

Arrivederci!
Amy and Jenni