Italy Adventure, Day 3!!

Agenda for day 3...The Vatican! 

We were pretty excited to see the Vatican.  Except A, who didn't quite understand...since we aren't Catholic. We tried to explain...but she still wasn't convinced!

Our apartment was a pretty good distance away from Vatican City, so we decided to venture that way on public transportation...the bus!  I'm not keen on underground metro systems, so the bus seemed to be the way to go!  We thought it would be simple (the book said so), so we weren't too concerned about missing our time for our pre-purchased tickets.

Then that morning, we headed to the bus stop that we thought was THE bus stop.  We waited about 15 minutes, becoming more and more certain that we were in the wrong spot.  A nice Italian man saw our distress, and with limited English told us where we needed to be....which was several blocks away!  So we walked to the new (right) bus stop, and waited...and waited.  As we were beginning to have our doubts about this one being the right one, our bus came!  We got on (standing room only), and off we went!!  It was a long, crowded bus ride!!  LONG...CROWDED...HOT!!  We had read that the buses were air conditioned...but by day 3 of our trip we had also discovered that what Italians call "air conditioned" is not what we American call "air conditioned"!!  It basically meant there was some (ever so slightly) moving air in the bus.  Finally, we arrived at our stop near the Vatican.

We got in line, and even though we had pre-purchased our tickets, there was a long line!  I guess everyone else had pre-purchased also!!  The line was in the sun!  And it was hot!  And we were already a bit cranky because of our stressful time finding the bus stop!  And then we had to go through security, and R gets REALLY stressed out going through security!  So we are hot, we are tired, we are cranky, we are stressed, but we are AT.THE.VATICAN!!  How awesome is that????  Little R had studied artists at pre-k, and they had talked about Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, so he was very excited to actually see it!  (No pictures in there, of course).

All smiles and ready to go!

Saw this sign on the bus ride!  Made us think of our German neighbors' little boy named Leon...so I HAD to take a picture!!  I was standing, the bus was moving, and I ended up dropping my full Camelbak (aka: HEAVY) water bottle on the top of my foot during the process!!  OUCH!!  But I got the shot...and thinking of Leon made us smile!!

Arriving at the Vatican...yep that's the line...in the full sun!

Amazingly beautiful inside!

These are inside St. Peters Basilica...thought the rays coming through were pretty cool!



As part of our Vatican tour, I really wanted to see St. Peter's Basilica.  But after making a wrong turn after the Sistine Chapel, we missed it.  We ended up having to walk ALL the way back through the Sistine Chapel, and it was very crowded.  This was after 30 minutes of walking around and asking directions numerous times!!  But our navigator (AKA: Daddy) finally got us to St. Peter's, and it was pretty amazing...but VERY crowded!  By this time, the kids were all crabby and tired of walking...and HOT...no cool air inside the Vatican anywhere!!!  So we headed out, trying to get away from the crowds....and T's flip flop broke!!  The pavement was HOT, and she couldn't walk in her shoe!!  R scoped out a souvenir shop down the road, and they actually had flip flops!  We were ecstatic!  So T scooted her way down there, we bought a pair of 10 euro flip flops with the Italian flag on them, and we were back on track!!

We had planned to eat at Hard Rock Café for lunch, so we started the long, hot walk over there.  We got there, and there was a 45 minute wait, but we could sit in the "atrium" immediately.  R asked if it was air conditioned, and the host said "of course".  We decided to sit there, so we could sit and cool off immediately.  Two things we didn't take into consideration: first, the "atrium" was a completely glass building...all sides and the top...and it was HOT and SUNNY outside; second, what the Italians call "air conditioning" is not even remotely close to what WE call air conditioning (refer to bus story above).  Soooooo....it was HOT...all.through.lunch!!  SOOOO hot!!  So we ate as quickly as possible and retreated to the somewhat darker, cooler store.  After picking up the obligatory t-shirts, we headed back to the apartment...on the bus.

LOVE Hard Rock Café!!

In the sauna...or atrium, as they called it.  And while it looks shady...it wasn't!

Waiting for the bus to take us back to the apartment!

On the walk from the bus stop to the apartment, we stopped in a market and bought some fresh fruit.  The boys made dinner for us that evening!!

What do you eat for dinner after a long, hot day...and a huge, delicious lunch???  Why...cold, fresh fruit, of course!!

It was a long, hot, exhausting day!  But once again, we got to see and experience things we never dreamed we would see in our lifetime!!  Were we exhausted...yes!  But it was SO totally worth it!