Rome and the Vatican

The weeks are running away too quickly--it's already the weekend and I'm finally just writing about our last weekend in Rome. 

So ROME. How was it? Well, it was worth it. I'll say that :) The monuments are absolutely worth seeing and the Vatican museums are breathtaking. We did a tour of the Sistine Chapel (painted by Michelangelo), the Raphael Rooms, and St. Peter's Basilica (soooo huge!!). The museums are PACKED with people, so you just get carried with the crowd. It was definitely worth having a guide to explain things and to show us where to go to find the best stuff. We had this awesome Italian-Korean tour guide who kept calling us "my dears" and herded our group of 15 or so around for 3 hours. 

We didn't get a ton of great pictures cuz we literally couldn't pause or else we'd get pushed along by the people behind us haha

This is one of my favourite sculptures. 

We couldn't take any pictures in the Sistine Chapel and my camera died before the Raphael Rooms but google it--the pictures there will be a million times better than the ones I could have taken.

This is St. Peter's Basilica and Square--the Pope does an appearance here on Wednesdays and Sundays. We didn't get to see him though.

This church is incredible and so so huge. We went in the catacombs too where all the popes are entombed.

A cool view of the Basilica from the Tiber river.

And then of course we had some good Italian food while we were there :) 

Gelato

Saturday we did a tour of the Colosseum... it was incredible. Just so crazy that it was built nearly 2000 years ago. The architecture is amazing! Did you know that the Colosseum had a cloth roof? 

So there you go. I've seen Rome and though it was great and worth it, it is not a city that I will long to go back to. It felt like a place for tourists, slowly degrading as the Roman government stops funding archeological projects and stops taking care of the city (graffiti everywhere, old metro, garbage on the streets...) Rome definitely has a special beauty and there were some cleaner areas (around the Vatican and the Spanish steps) but for the most part, I think Rome needs a makeover. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt the tourism industry there.


Coming soon:
Why I love my internship
What to do in Marseille if you have 2 days