Our hotel is in the outskirts of Rome. The hotel provided a shuttle to get us to the rural train station which connects us to the metro station. If we want to catch the hotel shuttle again, we needed to be back at the station by 5:00 which I know isn't going to happen for me. Thus, we were told about the bus that would take us from the rural train station to the hotel.
We started the day walking to the infamous Spanish Steps and then to the Capuchin monastery. That Capuchin monastery was slightly creepy. It's basically the skulls and bones of the Capuchin monks in decorative form. However, I must admit that it was morbidly beautiful.
We then proceeded to Vatican City and had a tour of the Vatican Museum, which is the picture above. I got to see the Raphael painting of School of Athens and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. I was absolutely amazed at the idea that I saw those, IN PERSON. I stood in the same room as those works of art which have just be boasted to me during history classes. The tour ended in St. Peter's Basilica which had amazing and inspiring architecture. However, there were so many people in it that I didn't get to feel the basilica feel which slightly disappointed me.
Our tour guide brought us to Alice' Pizza which has delicious pizzas. I miss pizza in Rome. It was plain mouthwatering goodness. I then decided to spend my day visiting the other 3 major basilicas in Rome. Everyone else wanted to go inside the Colosseum and I wasn't particularly interested because to me it's just a pile of rocks. I personally thought the best part of the Colosseum is the outside, but this is just my personal opinion.
I only visited 2 out of the 3 other basilicas, namely Mary Major and John the Lateran. The other one was outside the city walls and too far away from me. I walked all the way from the Spanish Steps to John the Lateran. If you know the map of Rome, you'll know that I was crazy for doing this. It was totally worth it though. John the Lateran or Basilica San Giovanni in Laterno was my favorite basilica. I prefer it over St. Peter's. I think it helped that there weren't a lot of people visiting it and I got to pray and cherish being in there. Afterwards, I stopped and got myself gelato from Giolitti's which is the best gelato in Rome. (There's more walking involved here than I put. If I know you personally, remind me to tell you the story. )
The adventure of going home then began. I got to the rural station just fine. I can ride trains and get to where I need to be. As for buses, however, that's a different story. Nonetheless, I got home (let's leave the kinks out of it) and my legs were exhausted. It basically wasn't very happy with me. At the end of the day, however, I realized I saw enough of Rome. I was ready to move on to a different city.
Rome is amazing, don't get me wrong. It's just one of those cities that can only be handled in small doses, at least in my opinion. There's only too much of it you would want to do for a period of time. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Rome thoroughly and I wouldn't mind going back for another 2 days.
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