Bright and early (7am!!!!) we rose for a special trip to the Vatican, we met Steph there at 8ish and were one of the first to line up, my religion teachers would be proud of my effort. Absolutely lovvved the Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani), not only because the woman was nice enough top give me a student discount even though I don't have a student card, but because of the almost overwhelming amount of beautiful things in these halls and windy corridors and rooms with windows looking over the sultry roman roofs. It was impossible to see everything—we had a wander through the egyptian stuff with some cool mummys and the like, the classic roman and greek statues, the frescoes and tapestries and sheilds and pottery and jewellery and contemprary religious artworks and francis bacon and ohhhhh it was fabuloso! Then there was ofcourse the Sistine Chapel, I must say I was a little underwhelmed, I still cant compare anything to the grandeur of Notre Dame, but it was still very beautiful.

What I really loved was walking through the metal detectors to glary Basilico San Pietro, past the fountain to a vast crowd listening to some dude speaking french…Only to discover it was my good german friend Benedict!! Also known as the Pope. We didn't even realise he spoke on Wednesdays, so got very chuffed that he had a big ceremony just for us. It was so cool being there when he was there, I felt so special and weird to think I was in St Peters Basilica LISTENING TO THE POPE how is this even real…But it was. And he spoke good french, I understood pretty well and liked how he praised the Czech Republic and the youth and asomehting something something. And he also sang in latin along with a billion oher people. I was impressed to say the least.

It was now well and truly time for Pizza: We had been in Italy for 2 days now and still hadnt had any. We took a long walk past Castel Sant'Angelo, Piazza dei Tribunali, and Palazzo di Giustizia to this place called Gusto, recommended by Lonely Planet. At first we were like um europe on a shoesring by butt this looks fancy shmancy! But I am so glad we decided to share two 6 euro pizzas, one Marinara and one Margherita, I fell in love at first bite. So delectable, such crust! Such sauce! Such heaven!

Tummies filled we continued to Piazza Navona, which was so beautiful, and we took a nice way through these little side streets with gorgeous little holes in the wall and cafes and gorgeous apartment blocks and those quintessential italian windows. Oh, and I forgot the best part about the Piazza: GELATO! We sat in awe of what we ate, I have never tasted anything so refreshing, the lemon I had definitely rivals bar italia. Next on the agenda was Pantheon, which was so majestic and much more impressive in my opinion than the one in Paris, also it was free, and the Fontana di Trevi as a nice slice of tourist for the end. It was what I imagined except for some reason I thought it had more steps leading down to it, and the fountain itself was much more beautiful and big than what I had in my head from the Lizzie MgGuire movie, classic that it is. I didn't have any change left after all my food splurges and a n impulsive david-penis-bike-shorts purchase, so I had to make an invisible coin toss wish into the magical fountain...

In the night we went out with steph, G&G and our swedish pals, had some drinks in their hotel room and then proceeded to walk our tired old feet to somewhere, anywhere where drinking occurred, we had a bit of trouble as the word bar is used way in the wrong context in italy, its just another word for caffe. We did manage to find a place but it was a bit tacky and full of feral drunk americans in togas grinding each other and it didn't feel very authentic rome. Ah well, nonetheless I had a fun last night in Rome, farewell my empiric friend!