The city of ROMA

ROMA~ 

A city with big hopes and big expectations left us slightly ....well... bummed.

YES the sights we saw were incredible. d

The Vatican Museum and the Sisteenth Chapel set next to The Basilica, where the Pope spoke just moments after we entered, was absolutely breathtaking. To imagine that hundreds of years ago.....someone hand painted and designed the whole museum and all of the slight details through the 4 km of hallway and numerous engulfing rooms. Each room had something special and impressive to offer, however none more impressive than the infamous Sisteenth Chapel.

You see pictures, you see film, and you imagine what it looks like. It looks much the same as the dreams you have but much much more beautiful and enchanting.

40,000 visitors on this day, as it was the one FREE Sunday of the month, and our admission didn't come easy.

We arrived around 10 am with a $10Eu cab ride. The moment we stepped out of the cab we had a sweet Australian woman selling us on a tour. 

Yes the tour would cost $25 Eu each but you will bypass the line up( which at this point was about 1 mile long in the dead of heat. Being a free day, the crowds were larger than usual. We were to meet her back at the stand at 11 am, and our tour would begin.

At exactly 10:50 we arrived back after a sand which and espresso, and no body was there to greet us...... 15 minutes later, no one, 20, 30minutes... still no one. We gave up and began a walk down the never ending line of patiently waiting tourists and faithful Catholics, towards what seemed like eternity.

After about ten random tour salespeople along the way we finally said yes to the one guy who seemed legit and professional.

He took us into a small office space where about 20 other English speaking eager tourists awaited out guide Thomas to take us on our journey of the Sisteenth Chapel for $50 Eu a pair.

When Thomas finally gathered us all and began his tour with each of us sporting a hot pink strap holding a walkey talkey style handset, we had 1 hour until the gates closed.

What we all assumed was a professional guided tour ended up being a tour that in order to get in we had to as a group of 20-25 people, budge in line, and fight off the angry tourists who had at this point for surely waited at least 2-3 hours to hold their spot near the front of the line.

A few of our tour left, with disgust and fear of attack , and the small group of us remained, waiting for our dream tour.

The chapel closed at 2, and we snuck in JUST as the gates closed at noon, so we had a beautiful and busy 2 hour tour of the Vatican Museum, and I think at the end of the day we are both glad to have toughed out the less than professional tour guide.

The sooner we got out of the over crowded museum, the faster we could sit down and eat......

1 iced tea, 1 fruit salad, 5 meatballs and 1 small pizza later our bill came to $47 Eu.... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! This was for sure our most expensive eating experience yet, and we made sure to tell our waiter. Not that it was his fault, but we were in a small diner style place that had no reason to charge that amount. We were hot and tired and clearly took it out on him, poor guy..... He shrugged it off and said ,"It's Italy”

As soon as we got back to our hotel we slipped our runners on and headed out to the next adventure, being the Roman Colosseum. We were risking it but attempting the popular location in the middle of the day on a long weekend, but it was now or sneaking it in the am before our train ride, which seemed less than ideal.

Miraculously we walked right in.

The events that took place in this Colosseum are mind blowing, and even more so when you are standing in the middle of it.

People surrounding you snapping photos, didn't even slow down the speed of your brain trying to comprehend the history in which you were standing in.

We stayed about 45 minutes and headed out for a snack and some street cruising.

Aside from the 2 sights we saw, Rome really lacked love and enchantment for us. We felt as if we were in Vancouver but dirtier, with a few older buildings. We were both happy to head to the train station first thing in the morning for the southern end of the country.... 

NAPLES and the Islands of Ischia and Capri~