We begun our day in what I would soon learn is the most boring country in the world: Vatican City. Despite, the monotony of the tour guide, the city itself was very pretty.
The church makes you feel content when you're inside of it. You can pray in peace and feel good and pure.
The Sistine chapel was beautiful and I would have taken a photo if not for the rules which in ordinary circumstances I would have had no issue breaking but I don't want to go to hell and I don't know how I feel about taking photos inside of such sacred places like churches.
The tour guide was also literally so shit. I couldn't understand a word she was saying because of her thick accent. She didn't even point out the interesting bits and just wasted time showing us some shitty presentation and maps in the museum that no one could understand because we don't speak Italian.
After the Vatican, I had an embarrassingly large amount of the best pizza I've ever had in my life: the eggplant, Margherita and bruschetta variety. Had to pick off the anchovies tho ://
Yet again there was a multitude of street sellers. I'm still not sure of whether I'm amused by the weirdos trying to sell shitty wooden baskets or whether I pity them. I think for the most part they just shit me up the wall.
After our delectable pizza coma, we then took the metro to the colosseum with our contiki group which was honestly a bit grotty after taking the trains in Paris and London but at least it was faster than Melbourne Trains (f you PTV).
The colosseum was beautiful, very glad to have done a tour there. Had a wonderful guide this time which made for a much more pleasurable experience. Very interesting history surrounding the ancient roman ruins and the colosseum itself, eg. Emperors temple made for the emperors dead son even though temples were only meant to be made for emperors. Until this tour I didn't know how much Rome and Athens shared in common with their views on gods and ancient practices. I found this especially interesting after studying Antony and Cleopatra in high school.
We finished the evening early, walking around in a small group with nice people from our our contiki tour. We all went out and got hot chocolates which were delicious. Zac and I got a Nutella biscuit with it and it was really average.
We then went to a pasta restaurant and I got ravioli with fresh tomatoes and basil and holy shit it was the best pasta I've ever had in my life. I could have easily consumed that dish three times over.
As I was still hungry after dinner, being the fatty I am, we bought some authentic brie cheese from the deli and it was divine. I pretty much ate eleven euros worth of cheese just to myself. Amazing. Iconic.
We walked aproximately 18,000 steps today so hopefully I'll only gain half a kilo instead of two. Even though I was sick, I enjoyed every second of my time in Rome (okay every second that didn't involve uphill walking)
Love, Izzy x