52 days. One Italian adventure.: Vatican Tour

I haven't posted in forever, so I am going to write about my last week in sections. This is part 3/4

On Thursday, the day after the general audience, we had our Vatican tour. We had class in the morning and then just enough time to grab lunch and gelato (naturally) before meeting at the entrance to the Vatican museum. A group of us got huge sandwiches for 4 euro right by Piazza Navona. Then we accidentally found a gelato place we heard about from other girls in our group that dips your gelato in a chocolate shell. Yes, I am serious about that. Of course, everyone had to get one because as we say, YORO, or You Only Roma Once. I debated between a white chocolate shell and dark chocolate shell for a little and then fell back to my old favorite cream on top because I couldn't decide. I had the tiramisu flavor and it was deeeeeelicious. Rose called me right after I started eating it to clear some details up for my trip this weekend and then most of my gelato melted all over my hand while I was on the phone with her. Here is a picture of the yummy chocolate-covered gelato and my gelato with cream on top:

Ok, so now that I have ranted about food for long enough, I should talk about the actual Vatican tour. Our tour guide was very good, more on the passionate side and less on the personality side, but he gave us tons of information and I really learned a lot. We started the tour at the "mini Vatican City," a wooden miniature model of the city that helps you get a better idea of the layout. Then, we went through many rooms with important sculptures which I thought was a little boring because I knew what was coming next from my high school trip and that it was much more exciting! We went through the Gallery of Maps and the Tapestry room which are both beautiful. I love the ornate ceilings in these rooms and the sheer size of the maps and tapestries is enough to wow you. After that, we had 20 minutes inside the Sistine Chapel. In the Chapel you are supposed to be silent and no photos are allowed, but tourists are a rowdy bunch so of course it was sort of loud and everyone was sneakily trying to get a picture. That was a little annoying, but I tuned them out and looked closely at the artwork around me, trying to remember everything our tour guide said about the artwork. It is a beautiful place and I can't think of a better way to describe it right now because I have been writing so many blogs, but trust me, it's something that everyone should see in their lifetime. After the Sistine Chapel we entered St. Peter's Basilica which is another breathtaking sight. Our tour guide was very informative here. I love the architecture of this church and the Latin that is near the ceiling and the words travels around the entire church. I think the Latin inscriptions everywhere is part of the reason I love the Vatican museums and tour so much because it reminds me of my years studying Latin in high school. I pretended to translate some things but failed! Here are a few of my pictures from the tour: