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Vatican City

I woke up super early yet again to walk over to Vatican City and meet my before opening tour group. My sore throat has turned into a flow blown cold, which sucks, but it was a nice day and an easy walk so I dealt with it. Our tour guide was great, and power walked us through the line straight over to the Sistine Chapel. They forbid photos there now, but I probably could have taken 100 of them with just how beautiful that place is (I admit…me and pretty much everyone else in there still snuck a photo or two). Since they cleaned it in the 1980s the colors are so vibrant and lively and light. Michelangelo may have been an asshole but he was one hell of a painter.

After the chapel we made our way through the museums to see the highlight exhibits, including Rafaello’s rooms and some recently opened chambers. Then we made our way to St. Peter’s Basilica and it was starting to get pretty crowded by this point. Honestly I was a little let down by the basilica, for all it touts to be, and despite its size, I’ve seen far more elaborate churches in my travels. That being said, it is HUGE and artifacts are everywhere. You can even go down into the catacombs to see the graves of past Popes and even (supposedly) St. Peter’s tomb. They were doing a little mass off to the side so I sat and watched for a while, then grabbed some souvenirs and caught a couple guards in the original uniforms on alert outside. Then I walked through the main entrance to the city back out to Rome. It was almost 1pm by that point, and my cold really was getting worse, so I decided to grab some ravioli then head back to the hotel for some R&R and to pack for my Thailand flight tomorrow.

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Pompeii and Positano

I woke up at the ass-crack of dawn and hiked over to the meeting point for my trip to Pompei and Positano. The trip out to Pompei was pretty cool, since you got to see Mount Vesuvius and pass by some great views of Naples on the way down. It was honestly a perfect day. It was sunny, warm, relatively low humidity, with a light breeze. And yet, when we arrived in Pompei it wasn’t busy at all like we were expecting. We were able to walk right in and hit all of the highlights right on time. We visited a small house that had a lot of the original frescos intact, a nobleperson’s big house with cool floor tiling, a bathhouse, the famous brothel with their more R-rated frescos still in place, the main shopping street, and the main courtyard. We also got to see the casts of some of the people who died there, and we were guided by an active site archaeologist who works on the modern excavations so she was able to tell us about some cool things they’ve found just in the past few years. For example, all the old books say Vesuvius erupted in August, but now they’re sure it must have been at least October from the fruits they’re finding and some new graffiti they found on a wall where the person dated it to what would translate as October of 79 A.D. That’s the cool thing about science, you can always adjust based on new information.

After we left the ruins I pet a cat, and ran back to the bus. We drove over to Sorrento, with gorgeous views down into the bay and of Sorrento itself, and continued under the mountains and to the Amalfi Coast. We drove along the coast, which is pretty dang gorgeous, all the way over to Positano. At which point, we were given a couple hours to just hang out and wander around. I went down to the black beach first and stuck my hand in the lukewarm water, which surprised me, I thought it would be cold. Then I went to a pizza place that had a wood burning oven and ate probably the BEST Margherita pizza I’ve ever had before. Then I wandered back up to the top of the houses along the shop roads and got a lemon slushie, since lemons are a big crop in this area. Afterwards, we all hopped back on the bus and made the long trek back to Rome. I’m going to the Vatican tomorrow so maybe I can get someone to bless this cold I’m developing away…that’s how that works, right?

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Rome – Day 2

I got up early and headed out towards the Colosseum. Since it was early, I made a quick stop at Trevi Fountain to get some pictures when it’s not so crowded first. After I made my way to the Colosseum I met up with my tour group and we went inside at ground level, where the gladiators would have fought. From that vantage point you could also look down into the sublevels where all the preparation and background work happened, which was pretty cool. After the Colosseum we made our way through Palatine Hill and to the Forum, at which point we were given time to do as we pleased. I wandered around for a bit, looking at the ruins, before making my way to Piazza Venezia and walking up to their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where they have two armed guards always standing by with a lit fire in memory of those lost. The views from that building, the Altar of the Fatherland, were pretty nice too.

I continued along my way to Largo di Torre Argentina, an excavation site that they’re still working on which also happens to be next to a large TNR cat rescue, sanctuary, and adoption center. They welcomed guests, even tourists to come in and pet cats so of course I did because as I’ve said before that’s just who I am as a person. After taking photos of all the free roaming cats I went inside and donated $30, so the lady told me to pick out one of the hand-painted rocks one of their volunteers made to sell. I took a happy looking ginger painted cat.

The Pantheon was just up the road so I walked over there, but didn’t go in, I was getting hungry. After grabbing something to eat, I headed to Triton Fountain where I met my tour group for the next activity, a tour of three underground ancient buried locations. The first was one of the first Christian catacombs in existence that upwards of 150,000 people had once been buried in. The second was a 12th century church, which had been built on top of an 8th century church, which had been built on a 2nd century rich person’s house, which had been built on a 1st century regular house. You could go down all the levels to see the changes which was pretty cool. The last stop was a church run by Franciscans where they had taken the bones of some 2,500 Capuchins and decorated several rooms with them. Not quite the same as the catacombs in Paris, but odd nonetheless. No photos were allowed in there though. After that tour was over, I jumped in a random pizza place for an okay pizza then headed back to the hotel. That was a lot of walking!