Rania and I woke up early this morning to try to get to Vatican City in time for our 9:15AM tour. We were a bit late but managed to catch up with the group in time to only miss the intoduction. Because we reserved our tour online, we were able to bypass the long line up (I'd say it would have taken at least three or four hours). Our tour guide brought us around the Vatican Museum in a two hour tour. One of the first things I learnt was that Vatican City is its own city state - the world's smallest independent city state, in fact. It is surrounded by a wall enclave within the city of Rome, but isn't part of Rome itself. We saw many ancient artifacts and sculptures, but the highlight of the tour for me were the Rooms of Raphael and the Sistine Chapel. Vatican City is home to some of the most famous art in the world. St. Peter's Basilica, whose successive architects include Bramente, Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta, Maderno and Bernini is a renowned work of Renaissance architecture. The Sistine Chapel is famous for its frescos, which include works by Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Botticelli as well as the ceiling and Last Judgement by Michelangelo. Artists who decorated the interiors of the Vatican include Raphael and Fra Angelico. The paintings were absolutely incredible - a lifetime of work for many. I'll include some of my favourite paintings as soon as I upload them onto my computer (give me a couple of weeks).
After Vatican City, we went home and did our laundry. The rain clouds were closing in on us so we decided to stick close to our hostel. We wondered through the backstreets and found a nice place for dinner. Tonight we might go to the Roma Pop Festival with a couple of guys we met at the hostel. Depending on how we feel and what the weather is like, we might just veg here instead. We'll see....
Hope all is well back at home! See you all in a few weeks.
xoxo
Alexis
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