I bought the “skip the line” tour tickets and we really did speed past a whole lot of folks. While in line, I started talking to a family ahead of me and it turns out they live about 15 minutes from Nicholas, ALana, and Miles in Arvada.

Our guide was very nice but his accent was quite heavy and I only understood about half of what he said. Add to that the fact that the earpiece for the radio system used did not fit my ear right and it fell out about every couple of minutes! So I did not hear alot about the history of what we were seeing. We walked through gallery after gallery for about 2 hours and much of it was very impressive. But it was so crowded! Finally made it to the Sistine Chapel and we only had about 10 minutes there. It was very cool but I found it very interesting that there is a “fence” partway across the chapel to separate the priests from the masses. I don’t have many pictures from the Vatican: too crowded, too dark, not allowed, etc.

My tour had started at 11am and by the time I was heading towards St. Peter’s Basilica it was almost 3:00! There was a huge crowd trying to get in and I was so tired and hungry (had not eaten since 8am) I bailed. I probably missed something great but I just couldn’t do it! I had booked a Coliseum tour for 3 pm, not ever dreaming the Vatican would take so long. So I just bailed on that. (Lesson learned) I found some steps to rest on for a bit then started my walk back to the hotel. On the way back, I stopped for a piece of pizza (meh!). Then I took a little nap!

My hotel was only a few minutes walk from Piazza Navona. I headed to a restaurant recommended by my golf cart tour guide. I had Pasta Bolognese and it was delicious. The pasta there is so much better! Chewy and satisfying! The I walked around the Piazza. It is a huge piazza that used to be a stadium in the 1st century for athletic games. It also boasts the Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini. Lots of restaurant, a few shops, vendors selling toys, and artists drawing portraits.

After Piazza Navona, I met up with my Night Golf Cart Tour Group. We saw all the same basic things I had seen on the daytime tour, just all lit up!! I was able to walk right up to the Trevi Fountain and throw my coins in! So glad I did that because I knew I would be exhausted after a day of touring and not want to go back out at night.