Italy and Greece: Day 3

Good morning all! Yesterday was definitely a busy one. Our tour director described it as the most difficult day of the trip, so I guess it's good to get it done early when we still are full of energy.

We started the morning at 9:00am, a reasonable hour, and had our first traditional European breakfast. Food consisted of meats, cheeses, rolls, croissants, espresso and even some bacon and eggs. Once fully stuffed, we loaded the bus and made our way to the Vatican. The Vatican is an independent city state which means it is its own country, state and city. In fact, it is the smallest country in the world! There were a lot of people though wanting to get it. Thankfully we had a scheduled tour and were able to skip the entire line. We met our guide, got our headsets on and then entered. Even though there were so many people outside waiting to get in, there were even more people inside! We walked through the Vatican museum and saw amazing works of art, sculptures, tapestries, but we were like cows being herded through the halls. After we made it through the museum portion, we were ushered into the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo. It took him a full four years to paint the ceiling and he did so when he was only 33 years old. He took 22 years off, and then came back to paint the Last Judgement. The room was beautiful. You had to be silent and could not take any pictures, so it was nice to be able to just enjoy the surroundings.

We left the Sistine Chapel through a special guided tour exit and found our way to Saint Peter's Cathedral. There is a special "Holy Door" that only opens every 25 years for Jubilee years, otherwise it is cemented shut. We were in luck however, as this year is the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. This means that the door is open for 2016. They say any Catholic who walks through it gains plenary indulgences (at least that's what Wikipedia said). Non Catholics just get the experience of walking though a door that many others will never have an opportunity to do. Regardless, it was pretty cool. The inside of St. Peter's is HUGE! We're talking one of the largest churches in the world! There was a special area down the middle of the church showed the length of other Catholic churches in the world to compare. Los Angeles was on there, but it was just over half the size of St. Peter's

It was lunch time at this point, so the group split up to eat and buy souvenirs. A few of us went to a sandwich and smoothie shop, and of course, some of us had to get more gelato (you should be noticing a theme). We met back up and made our way to the bus for our next stop, the Colosseum.

The Colosseum was built in the first century AD so it is almost 2000 years old, and still standing! It is also the largest Roman Amphitheater every built, holding anywhere from 40-70 thousand people. We met our guide and she took us up and around the entire structure. The views from the top were amazing and considering how old this thing is, it's in pretty good shape. It's always crazy to think about who walked where you're walking or who sat where you're sitting. Many famous people I'm sure. We left the Colosseum and made the short walk to the Forum. This was the area where the Romans did everything. The markets were there, the banks were there, the senate met there, there were churches, and anything else you can imagine a city would need. At one point, it was completely buried under 6 meters (20 feet) of dirt. It took archaeologists a while to finally uncover everything, but when they did, the structures were still intact. Unfortunately my camera had a mind of its own and deleted my forum pictures, so I'll have one of the kids send me theirs so I can add them to the blog later.

We left the forum for dinner and it wasn't a moment too soon. Everyone was ready to eat. On the menu tonight was pizza! Can you believe they serve you a whole pizza for dinner? With ice cream for dessert! It was very filling and it gave us the energy we needed for the Night Tour. Thankfully this was on the bus, so we didn't have to do anymore walking. We saw the entire city all lit up at night. It was beautiful and a completely different vibe from the daytime. I can't say that I stayed awake the whole time...but from what I did see, it was amazing. A very busy day, a very busy evening, and hopefully a long restful night. Enjoy the pictures below!