Vatican-tastic!

I was planning on putting together this post last night but I slipped into a food and wine induced coma! More on that later...

Yesterday we watched the hockey game at 2am our time (great success!!) and then woke up early to make it to our Vatican Museum tour! We booked a tour with Through Eternity and our guide was Filipo! It was AMAZING!! I picked this tour because it was the longest one I could find - 5 hours PLUS a lunch break!! The tours are so worth it just to pass the huge lines! 

In the morning we were in the paintings gallery where they had lots of paintings including some from Raphael and Michelangelo. The was also a special collection of Faberge Eggs from the Russian Royal family! Alex do you want me to claim them for you ;)

After the giant paintings gallery it was time for lunch! And we are geniuses!! We finally found a supermarket and we had a picnic lunch at the Vatican cafeteria (and snacks later) for less than 4 Euro each!! We were getting some looks as we assembled our sandwiches but they were fabulous!! We also refilled our water bottle from one of the many fountains throughout Rome! SO budget!!!

The Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St Peter's Basilica are so amazing that pictures and words can't capture it. So just go if you can. It's definitely worth any money!!

Then after the museums we went out for dinner with my Uncle Chris! One of his colleagues from the University of Rome suggested a true authentic Italian place - not one of the touristy places. It was amazing!! We got there a little early - 7:30pm ... it was pretty empty. But by the time we left at about 10pm it was absolutely full! The owner was very nice and helped us pick food out - we ended up having a pasta course, a main course, and dessert as well as 1.5L of the house red wine! Everything was AMAZING!! Much wine and food later we were a happy bunch!

We walked back towards our hotel along the old wall of Rome where Uncle Chris discovered not only that there are (potable) drinking fountains throughout Rome (no... there is no cholera in the water... it's actually pretty tasty!!) but also the special way to make it easier to drink!

Overall a great day in Rome!! By the time we got back to the hotel we had been out and about for 14 hours and full of delicious food and wine!! Hence the immediate coma ;) 

Italian Gong Show

Well we made it to Rome! We flew into Rome Ciampino which I compared to Bellingham airport... and that wasn't reaaally a stretch. The gong show began at Ciampino. We all got off the plane and boarded these buses which one would assume would be taking us to a terminal of some sorts. It finally fills up and we head off to the terminal! Which happens to be a 12 second ride away... or directly on the other side of our plane. No joke. It took longer to fill the buses, drive them, and unload them than it would have to walk the 100 metres....

The gong show continued this morning. We were trying to find the Visitor center in the main train station "Termini" which is right by our hotel so that we could buy the "Roma Pass". I checked last night.... and FOR SURE there is one there. The problem was that we couldn't find it... and no one knew what we were talking about. Big sigh. After a good while and a mini tour of the shopping center at the train stations we went up to a random vendor and said "Roma Pass" and he handed two to us!!! What the hell!!

We took our newly found Roma Passes to the Colosseum!

Yay!! We took the Metro and everything! We arrived and there appeared to be absolutely no order to anything!! So we promptly ignored the giant line (which it turns out was the appropriate thing to do as we already had tickets). But in doing so we weren't able to rent audioguides because if you have a Roma Pass and skip the giant line there is NO WHERE for you to purchase one... random!! We finagled our way into an actual live tour which we were super excited about!!

But it turned out to be sub-par at best...

We have now accepted the absolute randomness of most things here. Coming here from London (that is preparing for the 2012 Olympics and is in FULL tourist mode) was kind of a shock! But we have lowered our expectations in terms of order and lines and such and are just going to do what the Romans do! Right?? ;)

Overall we had a GREAT day in Ancient Rome! We went to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Forum! All of which were amazing!! I stepped in as tour guide part way through and just started reading aloud from the Rick Steves book! I was gathering a little following of people :) haha.

Day one in Rome - Gelatto count is already at 2! One Strawberry and one Chocolate and oh my gosh were they good!! Tomorrow is the Vatican and then dinner with Uncle Chris!!

Sorry for the lack of awesome pictures today! I forgot my camera at the hotel (GASP!) so we were using Brad's iPhone all day! I won't make the same mistake again!