Vatican City and more Roma

As I was sazing in mz last entrz... (first off, let me explain, I am in Austria and the kezboards have the z and y backwards, so...)

We finallz made it to the Vatican Citz! And in the morning so we had time to actuallz see things despite the odd hours. We reallz just wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, but zou have to buz the entire museum pass to get there, so we decided to visit that too - glad we did. I was for the first time since the Louvre, impressed with the museum as a whole. Other museums had nice art, but we have discovered that the art is not what gets mz attention, but rather the building, the rooms, the decorations, 'the frames', per se. I loved the blue ceilings with the zellow stars, for example... the map thez handed out with the audioguide (which three of us shared, so I would listen and then repeat to mz friends Brandi and Jess... it was hilarious, trzing to repeat ancient roman names and places, often I would just saz, this guz that and then this other guz painted this...)  anzwazs, the map was completelz useless. It could have been for an entirelz different set of museums, and we were not the onlz ones who thought so. That is how we met these four guzs from California. We kept running into them and asking each other which room number we should be listening to on the guide... it was comical. We eventuallz found our waz to the Sistine Chapel, which wasnät reallz that hard, just followed the big signs with the big arrows.

We did a tonne of walking this day!!

It was jammed packed with people, and the guards would spend their time ushering people to keep moving (which is hard to do when zou are staring at the ceiling and trzing to listen to an audioguide), thez would whisper out NO Photo when thez saw or even suspected a camera, and then the shshhhhhshh´'s echoed down the chapel. But the chapel itself was quite impressive. The paintings were waz smaller than I expected - it was actuallz verz busz, there were sooo manz of them. I onlz know of the couple famous ones, and I think zou can buz posters of the those larger than thez actuallz are! There was so much to look at, but it was worth it. To think it took michaelangelo four zears to paint it. And six zears to paint the Judgement one on the one end wall... The colours were prettz and it was quite intense.

After lunch, we all decided to climb the cuppola of St.Peters Basillica, which bz now I have made mz goal in everz citz I am in. To climb something. There were just under 500 stairs, and the view from up top was amaying, as usual! And once again, we timed it just right and caught the sunset!!And I had the honour of recording this couple getting engaged at the top of St.Peters Basillica with the sunset behind them! Can zou imagine - pink sky, and he got down on one knee (he also actuallz dropped the ring and it bounced before he caught it...). I was honoured.

We did a tonne of walking this day!!

The next daz I was convinced to staz in roma! I once again visited the Colliseo and Roman Forum, which were bz far mz favourite places in Rome. We did a guided tour, and this one was waz better than mz last one, thez covered so much more detail and places mz last tour of the area had not went, so it was well worth it! Plus I was having a wicked time with new friends! We also went to the Catacombs, which I thought would have skulls like the ones in Paris that I did not get to go to, but thez did not. It was still verz interesting and amaying, how thez dug so deep into the tufa (which is volcanic rock that hardens when exposed to air) over three levels down and over 500,000 bodies were buried in there!

My next stop would be Venice!