Dear Vatican City, I understand you are very religious, but closing the Sistine Chapel on Sunday is bad for tourists!
Thaaaaat's right folks. I did NOT see Michelangelo's painting. :-( Sad face sad face tear tear. Halfway around the world, in Italy, in Rome and Vatican city is closed on Sundays. I feel like we should have all known that, but ALAS, we didn't. Yes, I am bummed. No, I didn't cry. I will live... and it gives me a good reason to go back! Although the town was closed, the Vatican has its own guards who stand and block the gates. I must say, I think these guards are way more tortured than the London ones. They looked like clowns hahaha. And they were young guys. But here is what we had to take seriously when they said the Vatican was closed... (You try not to laugh, I dare you.)
HAHAHAHA. Okay, but onto a more serious note. Before the Vatican, we went to this church for Capuchin Monks. What is a Capuchin Monk you ask? A Capuchin monk is a monk who wears a capuche. A capuche is a hood.. soo a Capuchin Monk is a "Hooded Monk" roughly translated. This church that we went to was really really COOL. I mean it was cool in that freaky, I like scary movies and death kind of way. Basically, the Capuchin monks, made four rooms in the bottom of the church strictly out of the bones of previous monks and poor Romans. The walls are full of skulls and everything, right down to the chandeliers are made from all different parts of human bones. Each room eerily depicts different religious scenes. The floor has crosses like graves in dirt that was brought in from Jeruselum. Some of the "newer" bodies in their still have skin decaying from their faces and stuff. It was definitely really interesting. In the last room there was a sign that cleverly read, "We were what you are, we are, what you will become". Talk about freaky right? We weren't allowed to take pictures in the rooms but I will post one I found from the internet.
Yeah, that's what it looked like alright.
But, back to the Vatican now. Since we couldn't get into the Vatican, we went over to St. Peter's Basilica and waited in a looooonnnnggg line (Roma pass doesn't work at the Vatican) to get into the church. This church was phenomenal. So detailed and big and WOW. I got to see Michangelo's famous work the Pieta which is a statue of Mary holding Jesus after he was on the cross. It is seen to be one of the best and most religious works of art in history.
After the Basilica, we went to the St. Angelo Castle. It was had a great view of the city and was pretty fun. Following the Castle, we went to a Piazza known as Piazza Novena where we had caricatures done. This is the first time I have ever had one done and the guy drew me in like 5 minutes. It's really funny because I swore he would give me big ears in it, but he didn't. I don't have a picture of it but I will definitely show you it when I get back if you want to see it. That was definitely my favorite part of the Novena Piazza. I am somewhat getting tired of writing but I'll post some pictures of the castle and view :-).
By this time of the day, we decided we were exhausted and ready to catch our train ride back. We read our ticket and it said "18:07". We thought we had about an hour and a half or so, so we found a museum right by the train station and it was air conditioned. There was not anything super special about it but we decided it was worth the 3 euro to stay in the cool air until we had to go to the train. When we got to the train station, we sat down waiting patiently for the time and place for us to catch our train to appear on the screen. Only about half and hour did I realize, WE READ THE TICKET WRONG. Yep, that's right, 18.07 was the date (they do DD/MM). Right next to it was the time 16:32. We missed our train. For half a second I was panicked. We were going to be stuck in Rome and miss class and there was nothing we could do about it! Stephanie and I remained calm and went to the refund line. I was scared they would not give us a refund or change our ticket without making us pay the full price because it was our mistake not theirs and we only bought the base price ticket. Luckily when we got to the teller and explained how we were American and misread the ticket and don't understand military time, yadda yadda yadda, she ended up telling us that she would subtract the price we paid for our tickets from the new ticket. There were no more cheap trains back so we took a fast train (which was air conditioned and only had to pay an extra 30 euro). It sucked a little bit, but we ended up getting back earlier than if we had caught the right train. When we got back, we were exhausted and crashed immediately.
HAHAHAHA. Okay, but onto a more serious note. Before the Vatican, we went to this church for Capuchin Monks. What is a Capuchin Monk you ask? A Capuchin monk is a monk who wears a capuche. A capuche is a hood.. soo a Capuchin Monk is a "Hooded Monk" roughly translated. This church that we went to was really really COOL. I mean it was cool in that freaky, I like scary movies and death kind of way. Basically, the Capuchin monks, made four rooms in the bottom of the church strictly out of the bones of previous monks and poor Romans. The walls are full of skulls and everything, right down to the chandeliers are made from all different parts of human bones. Each room eerily depicts different religious scenes. The floor has crosses like graves in dirt that was brought in from Jeruselum. Some of the "newer" bodies in their still have skin decaying from their faces and stuff. It was definitely really interesting. In the last room there was a sign that cleverly read, "We were what you are, we are, what you will become". Talk about freaky right? We weren't allowed to take pictures in the rooms but I will post one I found from the internet.
Yeah, that's what it looked like alright.
But, back to the Vatican now. Since we couldn't get into the Vatican, we went over to St. Peter's Basilica and waited in a looooonnnnggg line (Roma pass doesn't work at the Vatican) to get into the church. This church was phenomenal. So detailed and big and WOW. I got to see Michangelo's famous work the Pieta which is a statue of Mary holding Jesus after he was on the cross. It is seen to be one of the best and most religious works of art in history.
After the Basilica, we went to the St. Angelo Castle. It was had a great view of the city and was pretty fun. Following the Castle, we went to a Piazza known as Piazza Novena where we had caricatures done. This is the first time I have ever had one done and the guy drew me in like 5 minutes. It's really funny because I swore he would give me big ears in it, but he didn't. I don't have a picture of it but I will definitely show you it when I get back if you want to see it. That was definitely my favorite part of the Novena Piazza. I am somewhat getting tired of writing but I'll post some pictures of the castle and view :-).
By this time of the day, we decided we were exhausted and ready to catch our train ride back. We read our ticket and it said "18:07". We thought we had about an hour and a half or so, so we found a museum right by the train station and it was air conditioned. There was not anything super special about it but we decided it was worth the 3 euro to stay in the cool air until we had to go to the train. When we got to the train station, we sat down waiting patiently for the time and place for us to catch our train to appear on the screen. Only about half and hour did I realize, WE READ THE TICKET WRONG. Yep, that's right, 18.07 was the date (they do DD/MM). Right next to it was the time 16:32. We missed our train. For half a second I was panicked. We were going to be stuck in Rome and miss class and there was nothing we could do about it! Stephanie and I remained calm and went to the refund line. I was scared they would not give us a refund or change our ticket without making us pay the full price because it was our mistake not theirs and we only bought the base price ticket. Luckily when we got to the teller and explained how we were American and misread the ticket and don't understand military time, yadda yadda yadda, she ended up telling us that she would subtract the price we paid for our tickets from the new ticket. There were no more cheap trains back so we took a fast train (which was air conditioned and only had to pay an extra 30 euro). It sucked a little bit, but we ended up getting back earlier than if we had caught the right train. When we got back, we were exhausted and crashed immediately.
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