So today began early in the morning - I'm talking like 4am - because we needed to catch a train to Pompeii!!
However, due to our aching feet and a bit of incorrect estimation on how long it would take us to get to the station from our hostel, we missed that train.
Yeah, missed it.
We even ran halfway there when we realized we were running terribly late! So, needless to say, we were pretty upset...I'm even going to say pissed off.
We just had 50 euro down the drain and I kind of wanted to cry when we arrived only to see our train disappearing down the track...
However, we still needed to get to Pompeii so we bought more tickets (for tomorrow since all the ones for today had been sold out) and then sat down outside on the curb to cool off and decide what in the world we were going to do instead.
What we eventually came up with was to try and head over to the Vatican Museums. It was barely even 6 by this time and even though the doors to the museums open at 9, the line becomes long far before that.
We got a bit lost on the way there, but happened to find a nice little Italian coffee shop that served less-than-one-euro pastries which we indulged in for breakfast and then finally made it to the museum entrance. At first we were very confused as to where the line began....turns out we were just so early that there wasn't really a line yet! So, even though we had to wait for 2 hours and watch as all the other groups and pre-paid ticket holders walk in before us, when they finally opened the doors for our line, we were the third ones in!! Not too shabby!!!
We moved through the museums at a pretty leisurely pace - one, because we didn't have anything else planned and were going to try and make a day of it and two, because all that frantic running had literally killed our feet and legs. Nonetheless, we saw some beautiful works of art - some I had already seen with my study group, but also some that I hadn't! These included some Egyptian art and artifacts (including two real mummies!) and some Assyrian-era works. Very cool!!
...mummy!!
Eventually, after fighting off the swarming masses of people, Tibby and I made it into the fabulous, amazing Sistine Chapel!! What a blessing to be able to have seen it twice now!!!
Tibby says that it was completely overwhelming and there is so much you don't see in the pictures that makes you think you could come in day after day and still not be able to see everything!!
She also wanted to point out that the two rules of visiting the Chapel - no photos/video and no noise - were not followed, by her, me or anyone else....lol.
Anyways, after the Sistine Chapel, we wandered back out into the giftshop area where there was a postal station set up. We grabbed a couple of postcards to send back home (be on the lookout families!!) and though the postal workers were not very friendly, we both thought it was so cool to actually be able to send something from the Vatican!!
Again, we are still pinching ourselves at how lucky we are!!
Also lucky was the fact that we caught a bus headed right back to our neighborhood after our visit and were able to rest our feet before we had to shuffle over to our local grocery store to pick up some more supplies. Then, afterwards we grabbed some more pizza from that yummy hang-out (how could we resist?!!) and sat on the fountain in the Piazza of Santa Maria in Trastevere, enjoying the cool mist of the water and the fact that we didn't have to stand!!
But eventually we made it back home (though we stopped for gelato of course...) and have been taking it really easy for the rest of the day. We even are splurging and called for a taxi tomorrow so we don't make the same mistake with the train again and can rest our feet for a few more hours before we head to Pompeii!!
Can't wait to see it!!
Until tomorrow, goodnight from these tired ladies!!
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