MUSEI VATICANI
Dear Caroline,
We had an early morning your parents and I. We had a call time of 8:30 am at the Vatican for a bus tour of the gardens and a tour of the Vatican museums. Since I was a last minute addition I didn’t get to do the gardens but I joined the group for the museum, which is what I really wanted to see.
The crowds are insane! I have never seen so many people in my life. When I finally got into the Vatican museum I met our tour guide Pino and rejoined our group. He was a great guide and knew cool little tidbits. We started in the court yard and made our way into the first museum hall. Everything you see at the Vatican is only 20% of the actual art and artifacts collection that the Church has. The rest is kept safe in the archives deep underground. The whole time I was in total awe of the art on the ceilings and walls, I spent most of the morning looking up, I think I have a permanent crick in my neck now. The whole time you’re walking shoulder to shoulder with thousands of people, the place is packed.
At the end of the museums you get to see the Sistine Chapel. Is it nice? yes it is but funny enough it’s more spectacular in the art history books. I think it’s because when you’re there you are overwhelmed by it all. You dad felt like it looked like graffiti, granted we had just seen St. Paul Beyond the Wall which was quite opulent, and the Sistine is just one big fresco, still incredible but a different kind. After the Sistine we filed our way to St Peter’s Basilica and the square. I didn’t realize how big St. Peter’s is, it just keeps going, I don’t think we saw it all. I have to go back.
In the afternoon the group went to the Coloseum. The tour guide tried to get me in last minute but it didn’t work out, which worked out for me because I was exhausted and started to get a headache. Too much excitement for me in one morning. I met up with your parents for dinner. We went to Osteria da Fortunata then to Mr. 100 Tiramisu for dessert. Three different flavours later and we came to the consensus that the snickers tiramisu was the best one. It’s a really cool concept that I think you could totally replicate in Utah. They all start with the same plain tiramisu base and then you add toppings depending on the flavour profile selected. Take the snickers for example, it was a regular tiramisu but with chocolate (Nutella), caramel sauce, peanuts and snicker pieces on top. It was glorious! Here is the menu with all the other flavours, sorry it’s in Italian (some English).
Mamie is my next visitor, talk soon!
