This morning we were abruptly awakened by the delivery of our continental breakfast (a croissant and cup of hot milk... ew?) around 8:30am, which is really early when you don't go to bed until 4:00am the night before. We explained to the person at the desk that we needed to leave because of the traffic noise and no internet (which was advertised on the website) and after trying to negotiate by offering us a cheaper rate, she let us go without a problem. We still wanted to see some things nearby at Piazza Navona, however, so she let us keep our bags there until we were ready to take a cab way out to where our new hotel was. At the piazza we wandered through lots of street vendors and then made our way to the Pantheon which was the first of many amazing demonstrations of ancient architecture.
After the piazza we found some restaurants and had our first gelato in Italy!
After gelato we walked back to the Piazza and spent some time actually looking at what all the stands had to offer. Including ginormous donuts:
Once we had burned off our gelato (by walking about 50 feet) we decided it was time for our first real Italian pizza and we found the perfect place with amazingly tasty pizza. The guy outside was so friendly, and entertained us inside while we waited for our orders by asking us what it's like to have the Terminator running California. Ha. ha. From lunch we went back to "the orphanage" to get our bags and take a taxi to our new hotel, which turned out to be a palace... then we REALLY felt spoiled. It's so inexpensive though because of the off tourist season, so really we're not, we just got lucky. After we settled in we took the metro to the Vatican City to see the Vatican museum and St. Peter's Basilica. At the museum we saw hundreds of paintings, sculptures, elaborately designed tapestries, and of course the Sistine Chapel, which was so beautiful. I thought nothing could top the Chapel (although I was still holding the Westminster ceiling as my #1), but that was before I went inside St. Peter's. It is absolutely huge, and has some of the most intricate details I've ever seen in any church!
St. Peter's square:
I love love loved it and could've stayed for another hour, but they were beginning to close things down to set up for midnight mass and get security ready for the Pope's arrival. We enjoyed St. Peter's Square a little more, checked out some street vendors to look for souvenirs, and then took the metro to the Spanish steps. At the steps, we weren't quite able to see them because, randomly, there was an American Gospel choir performing American Christmas songs! The Italian people were way into it, and although I thought it was kind of cheesy, it did make things seem more like Christmas Eve. I even tasted chestnuts that had been roasted on an open fire (just like the song!). They were nasty, but I felt festive for trying them, especially because I had no idea they actually existed in real life.
Completely exhausted from a long day, we managed to stand the metro just one more time to get back to our hotel for dinner. We had a luxurious meal, and are now about to pass out in our new, spacious, not orphanage/dorm style beds.
No comments:
Post a Comment