Day Twelve: Rome and Vatican City

Our day started at the Vatican Museum. I had no idea that there was a museum there and I didn't know how extensive their collection is. It started with Egyptian artifacts. Again, I was never expecting to see anything Egyptian on this trip, but there was so much in Rome.

They also had a good deal of Assyrian artifacts.

I was not at all surprised by the Roman sculptures, but a little surprised by the sheer amount of statues.

This one is equally amazing and creepy.

I think this may be my favorite one. The dark veining of the stone is only on his clothing and not his skin.

That is a huge toe at the bottom of the picture.

Many of the rooms were as magnificent as the statues and other artifacts they contained.

Bronze age pots

Bronze age shield

Glass jars and cups

Various oil lamps

There was a hall filled with tapestries. I got excited when I recognized what was happening in them.

The ceiling of the hall with tapestries looks three dimensional, but it is actually painted to give the allusion of three dimensions.

One of my favorite parts was the hall that had painted maps.

It's not pictured, but we saw the Sistine Chapel while at the Vatican Museum. It was extremely crowded, but it's one of the main highlights of the museum. 

We ate lunch in the Vatican Museum and even though there was still more that we could see, we were ready to go outside. Unfortunately/fortunately we got a little bit lost and saw a few more amazing things.

Finally, we found the exit and the staircase was amazing in and of itself.

The Vatican Museum and the rest of the Vatican is not connected (unless you go with a tour guide), so we made our way to the entrance. The line to get into the Vatican Museum was longer than rides at Disneyland in the middle of summer. We were very happy to have missed them! The line to get into Saint Peter's Basilica was really long and Andy, Amy, and I were done with long lines. So we left Chris and Annie to go inside while we wandered around outside before going back to our place to rest and meet up with Mom.

We saw a member of the Swiss Guard!

I was so excited to see a real nun in her habit at the Vatican!

After we met up in our Airbnb, we took it easy and relaxed for awhile. Annie wanted to check out a nearby toy store to find a gift for Ruby. Their kids were very specific with the gifts they wanted. Seth wanted a ship in a bottle, Clara wanted cheese, and Ruby wanted a rainbow cheetah. At this point, they got everything but the elusive rainbow cheetah. While we didn't find it at the toy store, I did find a Lego set for a Ferrari Formula 1 car. I was a bit tempted to get it since Jonathan and I are huge F1 fans, but I didn't since we root for Mercedes not Ferrari.

For dinner, we decided to find a restaurant rear the Roman Forum. Across the street from the Roman Forum is Trajan's Forum and Market.

You can see Trajan's Column to the left of the church.

We also got our first peek at the Colosseum.

I can't remember the name of the restaurant we ate at, but the view was fantastic!

After dinner we walked across the street for dessert at Flor Gelato. I finally found my favorite flavor combination, caramel and pomegranate. It was delicious!

We walked back to our place going along the backside of Trajan's market and stopped to enjoy the Trevi Fountain at night.

This was a day filled with unexpected finds and amazing art. That was day 12.