The Vatican and Borghese Gallery

This day was probably our busiest day, as far as trying to get from place to place.

To enter the Vatican museum and see the Sistine Chapel you have to make a reservation, and as we weren't too sure how long travel would take, how long lines would be, or how much time we would need, it made things a little rushed.

We made a reservation at the Vatican for 10:30, and arrived on time, but we didn't know if that reservation was for the Vatican Museum or for St. Peter's Basilica, so we just lined up to see St. Peter's and hoped that was what our reservation was for.  We waited in line maybe 30 minutes to get into the Basilica, only to find out the reservation was not for the Basilica, but for the museum.  However, after waiting in line we decided to go into the church and hope that our tickets to the Vatican would still be valid even if we weren't there on time.

The Basilica was amazing! The sheer size is impressive, but all the statues, mosaics, and decorations make it awe inspiring. It is the largest church in the world, two football fields long and the dome is 448' high.

We decided to also go up to the top of the dome. Lindsay doesn't remember having to pay to go up ten years ago, but it now costs 7 euro per person. It was very crowded at the top, but the view of Rome was great.

From here we made our way to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, which they let us in to even though we were technically 2 hours late; however, as we had also made reservations for the Borghese Gallery at 3pm, we only had 1 hour to make our way through this massive building and see the sites (not to mention listen to our Rick Steves tour on the Sistine Chapel!)

After quickly going through the Museum we hopped back on the Metro towards the Gallery, and eventually arrived there, checked our bags, and purchased an audio tour.  The Gallery was neat; it was a collection of art from one family, the Borghese family, that was eventually purchased by the Country of Italy so it would stay in Italy.  The patriarch, Borghese himself, was a cardinal for the Pope, and was very rich and very manipulative, doing almost anything to acquire pieces he wanted.

When we finished around 5pm we went back to the B&B to relax, rest our feet, and get ready to head our for a late dinner.  We had dinner at a place that was highly recommended on TripAdvisor, but unfortunately our experience there was not so great.  After being relocated from our original table to one at the back near the bathrooms, we had some chewy calamari, and then waited 30 minutes for our carbonara to arrive.  That was really good, actually, but then after waiting another hour for our mediocre meatballs to come, the memory of the food we had just had was long gone.  They did apologize for the wait (as one of the cooks went home sick, mid-service, and did bring us a free dessert, but it was late, we were tired, and did not expect our dinner to become a 2-hour affair.

We made it back to the B&B around 12:30 and quickly slipped into bed, trying to rest before another day of adventures.