One our last day we thought we would be proactive people and get up super early (7am), and go to the Vatican by 8am. Myself, Darcey and Holly wanted to go to the Vatican Museum... easy enough, however two things made our plans more complicated...
1) It was Sunday - sooo there was going to be 10x more people doing the same thing we wanted to do, as it's a holy day, so it's like you get extra religion points for going to the Vatican on a sunday (im sorry if this offends anyone, i dont mean to just making a joke)...
2) It was the last Sunday of the month, so the Vatican Museum is free... aka 100x more people want to go on this day.... fml.
We got to the Vatican around 815/830.... and there was already a HUGE line... so we jumped in it and began waiting... and waiting.... and waiting. The Vatican didnt actually open until 9am, but once it did the line began to move decently. It took about 90 min to get through the line, and once we were in it was worth the wait. The inside of the Vatican Museum is a lot like the Louvre, where the building itself is almost as beautiful if not more beautiful than the artwork on the walls and behind glass cases. 
Ceilings:
I felt sort of bad because we were racing through the museum to get to the Sistine Chapel (you have to go through the entire museum to get to it), as Holly, Darcey and I wanted to go to this huge market they have in Rome (which is apparently one of the biggest in Europe) before it closed at 1pm. We finally reached teh Sistine Chapel and it was breathtaking, so beautiful and the paintings are incredible, the detail and the colours are just ...wow. I couldnt believe I was standing in such a famous place thousands of miles from my home, i still cant over that im actually in Europe on an exchange, still blows me away. Youre not allowed to take photos in the Sistine chapel, but i snuck one, as did my friends lol see below:
After the Vatican, we were on a mission to find this "market" we were told about. Holly's API friend who is studying in Rome told us about it, and said it was by her house, but she didnt know how to get there from the Vatican, so we decided to ask a cute police officer what bus to take to get their. In his broken english he helped us and after 2 buses, and a tram we arrived. Now at first glance this market appeared normal in size... then we kept on walking, and to say this market was huge is an understatement... this market went on... and on... and on. There were vendors selling everything from scarves, to jewelry, shoes, electronics, clothes, belts, etc etc. Anything and everything could be found at this market. I ended up buying three scarves and a new bellybutton ring. Holly bought scarves as well, and Darcey found her sunglasses she was wanting. :) So all in all it was a very successful shopping trip.
Shopping built up quite the appetite for us and we decided to stop off and get some lunch. We picked a restaurant that was just across the river from the Vatican and sat outside next to a heat lamp. I had lasagna .... omg and it was delicious, perfectly cheesy lol. The restaurant was good because they had a student deal where you get bruchetta, salad, pasta, a drink, free bread and there was no service charge, all for 10euro. not bad. :)
We decided to have a lazy afternoon since we were tired from the morning and all of our shopping we did Sunday afternoon, so we took our time during lunch and after we ate we went back to the Pantheon to get more gelato (obviously). :) It was our last gelato, and this time i got chocolate amaretto, mars bar and kinder egg again.
We arrived back at the hotel around 5 and lazed around for an hour until it was time to head back to the airport.
At the end of the trip I had concluded that:
- Rome was a beautiful old city with hundreds of years of history
- Rome is sort of a dirty city with regards to garbage, its metro and all the graffiti (when compared to Barcelona)
- Rome has a different vibe for me, more chill and relaxed - different than BCN
- I couldnt live in Rome or do my exchange, im so glad i chose Barcelona
- My favourite part of Rome wasnt the attractions it was the food and the wine... and the gelato ! haha
- I do not like being in a city where I dont speak the language, it's frustrating for me... however i spoke a lot of spanish when i was there and the Italians understood me
- I couldnt have been more happy to be back in Barcelona... my home :) it felt so good to return to the city i love so much. :)
<3 BCN.
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