Rome 1st Weekend: The Vatican and Laziness

The Vatican, and the dome of St. Peter's.

Bernini's Wings

     We took off around 10 to go meet a preist someone knew so he could hopefully give us a more in-depth tour of the Vatican and the surrounding area. He’d been living in Rome for about a year, so he’d had some time to learn about the different things to see. When we got to the Vatican there was a crowd and the Pope was outside giving a special blessing for Pentecost. So we all decided to go see the Basilica of St John Lateran. The popes lived there before the Vatican was built, and the Holy Steps are nearby, and there’s also a statue of St. Francis across from it. There were many reliefs done that depicted stories from the Bible. It was interesting hearing the stories that went along with them. After viewing that Basilica we returned to the Vatican. 

St Francis of Assisi

An old wall.

Basilica of St. John Lateran

A saint who was skinned alive.

The obelisk in the center of the Vatican's Piazza.
St Peter would have looked upon this as he was killed.

     At the Vatican, we were able to skip the lines thanks to the Priest’s special pass. That was really nice. We walked around and saw the beautiful sculptures, artwork, and several Pope’s bodies. We were given tickets to mass with the Pope at 9:00 in the morning; they were going to open the gates at 8:00, so everyone wanted to get there at 7:00, meaning we’d leave at 6:00AM. I decided to pass on this opportunity. Then we decided to go our separate ways. When I got back I took some allergy medicine and passed out around 8:00PM, and slept till about 10:00AM.

A cute little dragon!

Part of the ceiling inside the Vatican.

     All day today I’ve been knocked out on allergy medicine. I’ve been either sleeping or watching movies, I was going to go shopping but then I remembered everything would probably be closed since it was Sunday. So, I continued to watch movies, and generally to relax. I chatted with my roommates a bit, so that I could get to know them better. And I’ve been writing here for about an hour. Anyway classes start tomorrow, so that will be fun, or at least interesting.