Rong's Blog..: Itay Trip 2019 Day 3 (13th December) Rome

We headed out quite late today and spent the day lazing in till noon. The plan was to go to the Vatican and St Peter's Basilica but it had been raining since morning, this made us quite reluctant to get out as it's quite a hassle to walk on those cobblestones street with our umbrellas and coat. If I'm not wrong, we had breakfast and went back to bed and only went out around noon. Finally, we booked the last visiting slot available for the the Vatican and decided to just go for it. Anyway, P had plans to visit the area as he wanted to try out another Filipino restaurant near to the Vatican area. After the previous colosseum tour, P decided that he preferred to not to do tours and that we just look around on our own, I would actually prefer a guided tour or at least audio guide but guess it's better that I do that when I'm touring alone.

This satisfied P's cravings for sisig

This wasnt too bad but left my tummy bloated

We walked to the nearby Cavour station to take the subway to the Vatican area. We had to change to another train at the Termini station, but we sort of got used to taking the subway and I also decided that Italy or Rome was not as scary during winter time as the tourists are not that many compared to the summer days, so I stopped carrying my money bag since its quite uncomfortable to do so under my clothes, it always slipped up pass my hip areas and just dangled around loose at my waist so it's annoying. Anyway, we kept reminding ourselves to just be careful when taking the trains and at any one time, we did not really have much cash on ourselves so there's nothing to steal. It was getting rainy when we reached the destination but the Filipino food was quite worth it as it was really cheap and good. P was happy after the meal.

We actually panicked a little as it was raining heavily after we got out and it's quite a long walk to the Vatican (maybe 20 min?) especially since this was the first time we were navigating there. We also walk to the entrance of the St Peter's Basilica instead of the Vatican and we have to turn back. There was no queue to get into the Vatican museum at all, probably due to the rain, but we were rushing to pick up our tickets at 3pm and we were late. Fortunately, it was no big deal since we were not on guided tour and we managed to get our tickets and started our self touring successfully.

The long long hall of statues

Lot and lots of statues

Honestly, we entered the museum this late and we had no idea where to start our tour, so I was pretty sure we would not see everything inside and we were only aiming to visit the Sistine Chapel to see Michelangelo's famous work. We followed the signages inside and it took us through quite a few numbers of halls and turns to get to Sistine Chapel. We were surrounded by many magnificent artwork and I guess going for a few hours of guided tour would really exhaust us so it was a good idea to just look at whatever caught our eyes.

Intriguing art on the ceiling

And many more 只可意会不可言传

I was in awe of all the paintings and colors that decorated the tall ceilings in the museum and of course finally see Michelangelo's famous work in Sistine Chapel was an eye opener. We were shocked when there were guards shouting at visitors not to take photographs in the chapel, P managed to snap some photos secretly though. We were also glad there were some benches along the chapel so we could sit down and rest our feet while admiring all over the walls and ceilings. After visiting Sistine Chapel, there were only enough time for us to head towards the exit while admiring more art pieces along the way. We also dropped by the small souvenir shop in the museum to get some rosaries for P's immediate family and I got a set for my friend WH as well.

Wefie at the start of the tour

Secret wefie inside Sistine Chapel

The famous drawings

Awesomeness beyond words

The long stairways getting out of the museum

Outside the museum

When we left the Vatican museum, it was almost time for them to close their doors. We were glad the rain had stopped and we walked to St Peter's square next. There was a long queue of people trying to get into the St Peter's basilica and actually at one point of time the queue became much shorter as it was time for the last batch of people to get in for the day. We were busy walking all over St Peter's square so we missed the opportunity to get into queue and we decided to come back again the next day.

Large Xmas tree at St Peter's

The lovely couple

Guess who helped P with his jump shot?

We saw people doing this reflection photography using the puddles of water

We spent a long time taking photographs around the place as it's really a big grand square, luckily it was not too cold and the rain had stopped. After this, P wanted to go back to the same filipino restaurant again?! I was a little unhappy as we finally made it to Italy but all he wanted was his filipino meals. Anyway, he agreed to try out this snack place I've found which is near to the Vatican and it's the top on the list of restaurants. The funny thing was it was a small cafe and there was no crowd at all, so we walked past a few times without noticing it. Luckily, we did not give up and finally found it. There were only two other Americans there when we arrived. I must say that bread and cheese and the toppings were really good and I really stuffed myself. P was still reserving his stomach for his filipino dinner so we popped over after that.