Today we conquered the Vatican!
but first, our hostel here in rome is the coolest most hippie awesome place ever! the walls are covered in art and the employees are other travellers who need cash. We sat out on the porch thingy they have, and ate the free dinner!!! its not free every night, but yesterday was just free dinner! sweet! we sat out till like one in the morning just talking with a bunch of other people. At first the table was entirely canadians and we were talking about two tier healthcare and actual politics! weird! and then a bunch more people came, particularly Dom and Rick who were from Manchester and absolutely hilarious. we just sat around the table and laughed forever!
Then today. VATICAN CITY!!!! St Peters square is gorgeous... the basilica is gorgeous, the sisteen chapel is gorgeous.... everything is gorgeous. we went through the museum, and at the end is the sisteen chapel. it was awesome! there was this stupid american who was taking pictures, which you're clearly not allowed to do, and the guy came over and told him to stop. And he kept taking pictures... WITH THE FLASH! way to go buddy, just destroy Michelangelo's masterpiece bit by bit because you want a picture... who cares if it ruins it for everyone else. damn americans. the FLASH!!!
Anyways Jenn and I tried to pick out all the different bible stories and stuff.
St Peters Basilica is by far our favorite so far. the other churches are all gothic and so ornate and every inch of them is carved with something or painted, and its too busy, too much to take in. but this one is so gorgeous. its huge and smooth marble everywhere. the sculptures are huge and majestic, so they mean something more than just numerous and cluttered. We saw the graves of a bunch of popes, and put our hand on the statue of st peter's foot thats all worn away from people kissing it and stuff (and you're allowed to do that so its not hypocritical to be mad at the americans for ruining the sisteen chapel) and we saw Michelangelo's La Pieta. it was awesome. we saw Pope John Paul II 's grave too. it was so beautiful.
We had pasta for dinner and wandered around. we were heading for the spanish steps but it turns out I navigated us into the entirely wrong direction and we ended up on the other end of the city. so we were in the cinema district and we looked for an english one but couldnt find it. I think its just not destined to happen... we can never find english movies!
On the way to the Vatican my backpack finally broke. One strap went, and I said well its okay, Ill just use the one strap until I can find another bag.... snap goes strap two. so there were these guys selling bags on the street, mostly fake Louis Vittons, and I got a yellow backpack for 15 euro, haggled down from 45! go me! he was desperate... we actually started to leave cause I didnt want to pay 25 and he ran down the street after me and said okay okay fifteen!! of course it probably only cost him five to get it... but still... Im proud of myself! we were looking at bags at a guy with a cart and he stroked jenn on the arm and said 'oh I could take you home' at which point I shoved the bag back in his arms and said 'you touched my friend. we're going now.' creepy guys.
anyways tomorrow we're going to go see the colleseum! woot for Rome!
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