Our Jam Packed Last Day in Rome

We had a lot we still wanted to see when we woke up on our last day in Rome - starting with finding some pizza for lunch! (In case you're curious - we were not nearly as impressed with Italian pizza as we thought we would be.) 

We had reserved tickets for the Vatican Museum, and set off for there once we finished lunch - which ended up being a MUCH longer walk than we remembered! Between speed walking for an hour, the near 90 degree heat and the dress code of pants and sleeves in the Vatican, we were not very presentable when we arrived - but they still let us in. 

I'm not sure what I expected from the museum, but it was much cooler than my expectations. A good part of the museum is open air, and you walk between rooms in some beautifully made courtyards. The sheer number of statues, frescos and paintings is also astonishing. Similar to the Louvre, any room we walked into was just as likely to be striking because of the mosaic or marble floor, painted or carved ceiling, or other architecture as for the art itself. I really came to see the Sistine Chapel (which we found after a path that took about an hour to walk), but found many other amazing fresco ceilings along the way.

The Sistine Chapel itself was certainly worth seeing, but not at all what I expected. I thought we would see a ceiling with one large scene - instead, the ceiling and walls are covered with many different, smaller scenes. There is a LOT to look at, but the "sacred space" idea is quite a bit disturbed by the guards continually screaming "NO PHOTOS! NO VIDEOS!! SILENCE!!!" It was still completely worth seeing, however!

On our way out, we made it to one of the last groups going up in the cupola for St. Peter's Cathedral. The view from the cupola was pretty, but it didn't compare at all to the inside of St. Peter's. It was awe inspiring - one of the hugest buildings I've ever seen and incredibly decorated. We nearly skipped this because of the time and I'm so glad we didn't!

At the end of our day, on our way back we FINALLY made it to the Pantheon, just before it closed. This was also cool to see, especially the open ceiling, but was a little anti-climatic after St. Peter's. We enjoyed dinner right by the Pantheon before going back for one of our last time packing up!