Europe Day 6: Roma, Italia

We got up early (We did a lot of that, didn't we?) on Day 6 to take the train from Venice to Rome.

We figured out where to wait for the train, but after we'd been standing for a few minutes an announcement was made over the speaker in Italian and everyone started leaving... we had no idea why! Luckily an employee that we had asked a question a few minutes earlier ran over an told us that we should go to another platform. Love that guy! We would have been so lost otherwise.

We slept for much of the 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. train ride, but what we were awake for was beautiful. There were green fields and little farm houses... very cute and very green.

When we got to the train station in Rome we walked about half a mile to Hotel Espana, where we were meeting our other sister Samantha. She flew in from Sacramento that morning, and can you believe that we walked into the lobby just as she was signing in?

The hotel was really nice - clean, big room, mini fridge. They had one of the best breakfasts I've had at a hotel with pastries, cereal, toast, rolls, meats and cheeses. I recommend it. Here's the view from our room.

Other than this one, all the pictures in this post were taken by Sam because I couldn't find my camera all day.

After hanging out in our room for a while we headed to Vatican City (Add another country to my list, woot!) via train. It was just a few stops away. We stopped for lunch before going in, and had some delicious pizza. Mmmm love that Italian pizza! It's very thin with crispy edges.

Here's St. Peter's Square.

While waiting in line to go into St. Peter's Basilica, we encountered another of those fun rain storms like in Venice! We eventually decided not to go in, because we didn't realize how strict the security would be and Sam had an expensive pocket knife with her that she would have had to throw away. We went to the Vatican Museum instead, which luckily allowed her weapon in!

The grounds at the Vatican Museum, with (I'm pretty sure) the Sistine Chapel in the background:

The Vatican Museum had some really cool, historic and beautiful pieces - everything from early Christian art to mummies to pottery that's over 10,000 years old.

The problem we had with the museum was that it's way too big! The Sistine Chapel is at the very end and obviously we wanted to see that. We were exhausted walking through the whole thing seeing every exhibit.

The Sistine Chapel was beautiful, and there were a few more rooms with similar paintings on the roof that were impressive as well. Pictures are actually forbidden in the Sistine Chapel though.

We took the train back to our hotel and stopped at the mercado (market) down the street. We got some bread, cheese and vino. I must say - I love Italian wine! I've heard many people say that California wine is the best in the world... all I know is that every glass I had in Italy was fabulous. Even the bottles that cost 3 Euro.

After our snacks and drinks, we went out to dinner later in the night at a restaurant right down the street, where we had more vino. Also encountered more Italian men who have no shame in asking to take pictures with you and inviting you to the discoteca. Oh well!

Previously...
Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Dublin, Ireland
Day 3: Dublin, Ireland
Day 4: Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Day 5: Venice, Italy