Skip to main content

Adventures in Tourism: Rome, Day III

Landscape photo featuring the Colosseum,  three tall trees, and a cloudy sky. This was my favorite shot of the day.

Hello!

Out of the photo sets that I have been ruthlessly dumping on Facebook, the photo sets for my third day of Rome is the largest because, for some mysterious reason, I decided that it would be a good idea to visit Vatican City and the Colosseum on the same day.

We arrived at the Vatican an hour later than I had initially planned, which put a wrench in any hopes of getting in line early. There were many third-party sellers trying to sell us skip-the-line tickets. These sellers said that they were employees of the Vatican, but they tried to sell us tickets at several times the regular price. After choosing not to get skip-the-line tickets, the next choice in the tourists' Choose Your Own Adventure game is whether to get in line to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica, or to get in line for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. We chose the second route, and stopped to take pictures of St. Peter's Basilica before getting in line.

A glance at Saint Peter's Basilica

We waited in line for two and a half hours. About an hour in, it started raining torrentially, and we were absolutely drenched by the time we got to the entrance. My polyester jacket (which had otherwise held up to the rain) turned out to have a weak spot in the right elbow. I was very happy when we had finally gotten inside, gone through security, and paid for our tickets.
After such a long time in line, I victoriously took a picture of the Vatican entrance.

In the Vatican Museums, I enjoyed seeing relics from ancient Egypt. Despite being very hungry, wet, and rather exhausted, I tried my best to enjoy the experience. The Hercules Rotunda was a nice visual break from the gloomy and serious display of the Egyptian artifacts.




The Hercules Rotunda


After what felt like endless walking through the Vatican Museums, we reached the entrance corridor to the Sistine Chapel. I was impressed by the ornate elegance of the paintings and the small decorative details surrounding them. It is not permissible to take photos or talk within the Sistine Chapel, so this was the last opportunity to take photos before entering.



At last, we saw the interior of the Sistine Chapel. I was reminded of the documentary about Michelangelo that I watched in eighth grade art class. Michelangelo put an incredible amount of energy and effort into those paintings, and it was an honor to gaze admiringly at his work.

We rushed through a pizza lunch at the Vatican, and headed off to the Colosseum, where we had booked a 4 PM tour. The Colosseum, like the Pantheon, is marvelous due to its grandiose size, as well as its storied history. It was amazing to see it in person, after learning about its magnificence for so long.


After walking around the Colosseum for awhile, we went across the street to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. If you were also required to take Latin in middle school, you have probably had the importance of the Roman Forum drilled into you time and time again. I was impressed by its expansiveness, and the cloudy weather made for some dramatic photographs.




Overall, it was an exhausting but rewarding travel day. The theme of the day seemed to be "things are larger and more beautiful than you could have imagined", which was a nice way to end my last full day in Rome.

Best wishes,
Lydia 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blogging Every Day in August: A Directory of 30 Posts

Hello! I hope that you are all doing well! This month, I set out to write a blog post every day, and, if you are reading this blog post, I have succeeded in that goal. I imagine that future blog readers will not want to sort through 31 days worth of consecutive blog posts in order to figure out which content might be most interesting to them. So, hopefully, this post can act as a launchpad, and allow you to explore whichever blog posts from this month might capture your interests. Here is a roundup of this month's blog posts. I am including a short summary of each blog post, and who I think would enjoy each post. Tarot Reflections from the Yurts of MFC : I include snippets from my daily tarot draws while I was working as a counselor at Mountain Friends Camp. Ideal for people who like tarot, summer camp, or both. Desperately Trying to Hack My Sleep Schedule : I talk about the different methods that I have used to improve my sleep, how well they have worked, and whether I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grouchy Lydia Returns: A Tale of Tiredness

Image of a cartoon, faceless man resting his head on a stack of books at his desk. This image is from the Wikimedia Commons , and it is attributed to Peggy and Marco Lachmann-Anke [CC0]. Hello! I am very tired! My sleeping schedule has slowly deteriorated over two weeks. At first, I kept on sleeping through my 7:30-8 AM alarm, but I consistently woke up by 8:30 AM. Tired of not reaching my goals, I figured "Well, okay, I'll just move my wakeup time to 8-8:30 AM". I'm not sure where I strategized incorrectly here, but I found myself gradually waking up later and later. Since I was waking up later, I found myself struggling to go to sleep. How could I, when I had only been awake for very long and I had been doing nothing physically or emotionally strenuous all day? My problems came to a head when I woke up just before 11 AM on Thursday. "Ugh, fine, I've had enough of this. I'll just take Melatonin tonight!" I decided in a cloud of rage. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Brief Reflection on the Practice of Blogging Daily

Image of a canyon in White Rock, New Mexico. There is a ridge in the horizon of the picture, with orange-brown rock. The canyon is dry and dirt-covered, with small bushes and trees dotted near the bottom. A green pine tree sits in the bottom left corner of the frame. Hello! I seem to be in a season of my life where I am eager to start a project, but struggle to follow through. *stares at sentimental items on my desk that been sitting there for days, waiting for me to sort through them*  By blogging every day this month, I am trying to create some consistency, and to keep Slanted Rays from becoming just another abandoned project. This habit has become surprisingly well-ingrained, even with yesterday's post being written in my parents' car on the way to Sonic at 10 PM. At the same time, maintaining a daily post schedule is a bit exhausting. It's weird to sometimes create meaningful content that I really enjoy, while also occasionally churning out words just so that I...
Post a Comment
Read more