Italy Part II- Rome and The Vatican

So Our first full day in Rome started out with a trip to the Vatican Museum.  We wandered over to Vatican City, grabbed a cappuccino and snack and headed to the Measure for our pre-arranged walk through of the museum and Sistine Chapel.  All I can say is holy crowded!!!  There were so.many.people at the museum.  It was so much that we weren't even really able to enjoy it.

I mean, seriously, look at all of these people?!?!  I still have yet to figure out why we pre-purchased a time slot?!  It was so crowded you couldn't even really enjoy it all or take it all in.  Other English speakers around us felt the same way.  We all tried to take short cuts to just get to the Sistine Chapel since the rest was so miserable but we kept getting turned away by the cards.  The only way to see the Chapel was to follow the masses...

Of course, there are no photos of the actual chapel since I'm a rule follower and abided by the no photo policy.  It is pretty impressive though.  I'm glad we saw it, not glad that had to fight the crowds.

Next, was back to St. Peter's square to go into the Basillica.  There was also a HUGE line here but luckily it moved pretty quickly.  The guards uniforms crack me up.

St. Peter's is equally as impressive and luckily not quite as crowded. 

My tourist, so happy for a yet another picture!!  This definitely depicts how we were both feeling about the crowds! We still had some time so we decided to hit up the Trevi Fountain.  It is gorgeous, but again, super duper crowded.  I guess the streets, etc. are just super tiny and old and just don't fit nicely into modern day.

After the Trevi Fountain, we headed off to meet some of our friends from DC!  That was sort of the point of heading to Italy at this particular time.  Friends of ours were going to be in Rome for work.  We met up with our friends, had some drinks and then headed out for dinner.  Tomorrow I'll be back with our visit to Pompeii and drive to the Amalfi coast.