Friday, December 19th

On Friday, I spent most of the morning and afternoon at the Vatican. I spent a few hours in the museum just looking at the thousands and thousands of priceless artifacts all around. It's just amazing how much the church actually has, and I can't even imagine what other priceless treasures they might have hidden in their vaults. It was actually quite upsetting to me because as I was walking through the museum, I couldn't stop thinking about how many more millions of dollars the church would be able to raise by simply auctioning off one artifact than I could ever donate to charity in my whole life.

But regardless, the many ancient treasures were amazing to gaze at. They had everything you could imagine, everything from 4,000 year old Egyptian mummies to 20th century religious paintings. But, of course, the real reason anyone ever goes to the Vatican Museum is the Sistine Chapel. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted by Michelangelo alone and is one of the most amazing frescoes ever painted. It's absolutely remarkable how much detail he put into every figure, no matter how small.

After the museum, we went to St. Peter's again. Although this was the second time I went in, I'm glad that I went in because there were a lot of things that I missed the first time. I completely forgot about the statue of St. Peter whose feet you're supposed to rub for good luck. It's unbelievable how many people have rubbed his feet, his toes are completely gone. Also, the basilica looked completely different than the first time because it was actually sunny. When I went earlier it had been dark and overcast and so it was hard to see everything. But now that the sun was out, everything was revealed in all it's splendour and I could see just how extravagant St. Peter's truly was. I also was able to see into St. Peter's tomb the second time around. They had it sectioned off earlier, most likely due to cleaning for Christmas, and I wasn't able to get close enough to see down the steps. I was also able to get closer to some sculptures and statues that I hadn't been able to see before. Unfortunately for the others who hadn't come to St. Peter's earlier, they weren't able to see Michelangelo's Pieta because they had scaffolding all over it and were cleaning the glass.

After St. Peter's we left the Vatican City and went back to the hotel. Most people just chilled there for a while, but I went out to pick up a few last minute things for Christmas. After I was done with that and got back to the hotel, everyone was hungry and we all wanted to eat somewhere. After a week of Italian pizza and panini's we all had a taste for something American so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. There we all pretty much got big, greasy burgers and they seemed to taste better than usual.