Today Aunt Patti and I woke up, got ready, ate breakfast, and headed to the Vatican to meet Erwin, a good friend of a friend of Patti's. He was giving us a private tour and we were both excited! We met him by the obelisk in St. Peter's Square. He toured us around St. Peter's, including the underground tombs of former Popes, and the Swiss Guard barracks, which was really cool!
I realized that I knew a lot more about Switzerland than I had realized because he and I talked about a lot of Swiss things, due to the fact that I told him I have been living there for almost two months now. Erwin has been a Swiss Guard for twelve years and was very knowledgeable about all of the happenings of Vatican City. He let us know that the summer is one of the least busy times for the Swiss Guards because the Pope goes to his summer home, which is only about 30km away, just up in the mountains. It is a five minute helicopter flight!
After our private tour, Patti, Erwin, and I went for lunch. We walked a few blocks away, down a really pretty street, and continued with great conversation. I was really happy that I was able to meet Erwin because he seems like a wonderful person.
After lunch, we said goodbye to Erwin and Patti and I went to see the Sistine Chapel. This was not something that we will need to do again, unless we have a private tour. While the actual Chapel that Michelangelo painted was absolutely stunning, we had to walk through a maze of other rooms, that were also beautiful, but there were at least thirty of them and SO MANY PEOPLE! We felt like herded cattle. Now, you are not actually supposed to take pictures in the Chapel, but after walking for over an hour to actually get to it, and seeing so many other people trying to be stealthy and taking pictures as well, I took some. I kept the flash off so as not to draw attention to myself, but some of the pictures came out pretty well anyway, which I was happy about.
Exiting the Sistine Chapel was not as complicated as getting to it, thankfully. Patti and I walked to a more southeastern location from the Vatican, where two of her friends recommended and is considered to be less touristy. It was the Trastevere neighborhood and we could tell that there were a lot more Romans there than in other sections. We had ice cream and then dinner there and everything was very good.
After dinner we made our way back to the hotel and I fell asleep right away. I was exhausted!
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