Day 23 - Rome

Rome is great. If you haven't been to Rome you should come. It's that good.

Today we went to the Vatican, saw the Vatican museum, the Sistine chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. Then we went to St. Paul's outside the walls, which was built over Paul's burial spot, then we went to the church of the three fountains, which was built where Paul was beheaded. After we got back to the hotel I went out and had dinner (lasagna and espresso) then walked to the Spanish steps and the trevi fountain. On the way back to the hotel I stopped and had gelato, the chocolate chip is pretty much the best chocolate chip I've ever had.

I am almost falling asleep as I write this, so I will stop now. I will try to come back tomorrow and fill in a little bit more about the stuff we saw today and post some pictures for today and the last few days. I will just quickly list the things that took my breath away today: the Disputa and the School of Athens (Raphael painted them on opposite walls of the same room,) the Sistine chapel (seeing a picture isn't in the same universe as seeing the real thing,) the Pieta, my first steps into St. Peters, my first steps in St. Pauls, and the front facade of St. Pauls.

More to come tomorrow, until then, thanks for reading.