Pages From My Passport: The Vatican and Piazza di Poppolo

On our way to the Vatican, a woman came up to us, "Hey guys, do you want a tour?" Remembering that my dad told me that the line to get in could take up to four hours and his suggestion was to take a tour, we asked the woman the ever important question, "How much?" With student prices at 30 Euro a person, we told her that "we'd think about it." We didn't.

Instead, we made our way to St. Peter's Square and got in a line that resembled that of a Walmart's Black Friday sale. The tour lady had told us that we would be stuck waiting for two hours in said line. We waited forty minutes, but it felt like ten since we were distracted and taking three-thousand five-hundred and seventeen photos.

Inside of St. Peter's Basilica, Damian and I walked around half in utter awe and half in omgIwantapictureofthat mode. I don't really know how to describe the world's most epic church besides that it was just as magnificent as I had expected, and that there were tons of people, marble, gold, columns, statues, crosses, and did I mention people? We wandered down into the grottoes, passing the interred bodies of Peter's successors. One tomb that was noticeably missing from the section available to tourists was that of Damian's idol: John Paul II. We couldn't find it, so Damian settled for praying in front of the altar dedicated to him.

From the grottoes, we made our way out of Vatican City, my twentieth country (excluding the U.S. and layovers), and went to Castel Sant Angelo. Too tired to try and go in, we grabbed a panini and sat in the shade. Pigeons came up to us curiously, waiting for us to drop crumbs. Sorry fowl, but each crumb costs about $30, so I ain't droppin' a damn one! Europe is expensive. Ugh.

Realizing we hadn't yet gone to the Sistine Chapel, we headed to the ridiculously long line sprawling out of il Musei Vaticani. Once inside, we were forced to drop our stuff at the bag storage place, and then found our place in another line for tickets to the museum. Behind us was a woman who was on her way to being the next Joan Rivers. Suffering through seeing the results of her awful plastic surgery and overwhelmingly annoying and loud rants, we grabbed our tickets and rushed through the centuries of history and priceless artwork with the crowds - having realized that the Chapel closes at 4:00 PM... It was 3:15 when we got our tickets. I've decided that I'm going back to the Vatican Museum some time, when I have more than forty-five minutes to take in some of the most beautiful works I've ever seen. While the Sistine Chapel was spectacular, there was a different room that I found to be much more impressive - pity we had to rush through it. The exit back to the baggage claim was closed, so we were forced to go through (run through) St. Peter's Square again, down the street, along the Vatican walls, and into the Vatican Museum (through the exit, since the entrance was closed). Nothing's easy!

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped off at Piazza di Poppolo - checking out the fountains and churches in the area. Worth a visit for sure!