St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Italy
Popemobile back when it was a carriage
We got in the day before Trump got there! Upon hearing of his visit we were worried it was on the same day as our reservation, but we lucked out and didn't let him ruin our trip (but then we got out of town the next day to avoid him even more).We got up early in the morning so that we could try to avoid the crazy crowds. We got a guide at the Vatican who took us through the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. Our guide was this older Italy woman with an incredibly dry sense of humor that was pretty amazing. She took us through an underground room that has years and years of popemobiles which she says is not on the tours but she likes to go there. We then walked through some amazing hallways with incredible artwork of paintings, frescos, and tapestries. So many incredible pieces of art that we had no idea were there. It is kinda hard to describe the experience of this part of the tour. It was an overwhelming amount of people jammed into a tiny space all moving at a pretty rapid pace, and all trying to keep up with fast moving tour guides. While beautiful, the pace and amount of people was overwhelming and uncomfortable at times.
Sending postcards to our parents from Vatican City
Eventually we found our way into the Sistine Chapel. You cannot take pictures in there, and there is supposed to be no talking. It was quite noisy in there. Again, another experience that was amazing as the frescos on the walls and ceiling are unbelievable. However, being shoulder to shoulder with many people, all looking at the walls or ceiling makes for some uncomfortable experiences. And turns out, a gold mine for pickpockets. Which we did not experience ourselves thankfully but our guide let us know they arrested 22 pickpockets the day before. After the chapel we made our way into the Basilica where we toured around, took some photos, and eventually just found a spot to sit and rest. Another intense morning and it was just a nice place to sit and relax.
Our pizza at Pizzarium
From there we moved on to pizza! We read about a place that many claim to be the best pizza in Rome. It is called Bonci Pizzarium. It was great, hard to say best pizza ever since so many pizzas are good, but this was delicious. We ate as much as we could and took some home with us. We jumped on the subway to head home where we rested for a bit before heading out to dinner. For dinner we tried another place we read about called Retrobottega. This place apparently is made up of young chefs from all over Europe who have trained at Michelin star restaurants, but this place itself is intentionally not a Michelin star restaurant. The meal was amazing. We had a beet & avocado salad thing as a starter, then risotto and lamb ragu pasta as our main, and we shared a dessert that was made from chocolate and medlar. It was a long and slow paced dinner, but great and we enjoyed a slow midnight walk home across the city when we were done.