After we went through security, Susan went to get tickets on the second level so that the 4 younger people in our group (including ourselves) could get a student discount. We were able to and she gave us some of our money back which was really neat. We then went on to look at many paintings. It was really nice having a tour guide, especially one as well-informed as Susan is, because we learned so much about things we wouldn’t know about touring the Vatican ourselves. Plus, Susan has connections. And was able to show us things that other tour guides can’t. For example, she was able to spin one of these old pots that are meant to spin but aren’t supposed to be touched. Also, a guy in our group was able to turn this huge globe thing. We think it’s because Susan is quite friendly with most of the security guards in the museums!
We also saw some amazing Belgium tapestries done of Raphael’s paintings that are spun in gold string. We saw the apartments that Raphael painted including the famous “School of Athens” which was amazing. After many hours of looking at paintings and tapestries and ceilings, we finally got to see “the” ceiling. The Sistine Chapel that is. It is nothing what I expected but Brittany was amazed by how huge it was. We didn’t get a picture of it because we are not allowed to even though everyone else was taking photos as guards ran around screaming at people. We chose to respect the ceiling however and just admire it with no camera up to our faces.
As we were heading back to the chapel to meet up with Susan, I realized that I was so overwhelmed with the ceiling and everything going on around me I hadn’t even looked for the famous “Creation of Adam” right smack in the middle of the Sistine Chapel. So I stopped to admire it and then I lost Brittany. I couldn’t see her anywhere. Figuring she went out the exit to meet with Susan, I followed the masses of people who were leaving the chapel. However the exit went on forever, and went into many other rooms full of artifacts and paintings. There was no end in sight. There was also no Brittany, Susan, or anyone else in sight. There was, however, the too-much-make-up Asian-American lady with her husband. At that point I felt panicked so I approached them. Together we attempted to find our group. Eventually we realized there were two exits and we much have went out the wrong one. We headed back and there was our group, still in the Sistine Chapel. Nobody left afterall. I was relieved to find Brittany again. And I also felt a little bad laughing at the makeup lady. Just a little though. She was pretty ridiculous.The tour didn’t end there. Oh no, not with Susan as our tour guide. We met up with her friend Stefano who as Susan described, is basically an encyclopedia on everything to do with art and St. Peter’s Basilica. So with him in tow we headed into St. Peter’s. Stefano was a bit shy at first until we worked his ego a bit, then he wouldn’t stop talking. We were in the basilica for an entire hour. Our group slowly disappeared , but Brittany and I ended up being stuck with Stefano who got great joy out of us laughing at his jokes. The thing is though, we could barely understand his English. So really we were just laughing when he started to smile at his own joke. Either way, St. Peter’s was amazing. It was so huge and had markers to show how much bigger it is compared to other churches. I even got to see a dead Pope that was covered in wax. Eventually Mass started and we slowly pushed Stefano towards the exit, where Susan found us and saved us by making Stefano wrap it up.
We were ravenous at this point. We didn’t have a lunch break during the tour. The only thing we had was a small breakfast delivered to our room at 8am that morning. Well, it was now 5. The supposed 4 hour tour took 7 hours! It was worth it though. But our stomachs were growling. We found our way to the metro station and started our journey to the Trevi Fountain. We were so desperate for food, we just ate at a small pizza place we found along the way to the fountain. It was really disgusting, old pizza. We should have just went a bit further because then we found more restaurants, but it was too late. At least we got some food into our stomach. We were surprised when we turned the corner and found the Trevi fountain. We both imagined it to be in a more wide open space. Instead it was literally just squeezed into this tiny piazza. It was still fun though being there among the crowds, throwing our euro cents into the fountain. We even found an older couple from Michigan who took our picture for us.
After throwing our coins into the fountain, we went to a gelato place that our guide book recommended. We are obviously quite gelato snobs by now. This gelato place was decent. Not one of the best we’ve been to. But it was still better then the fake gelato stands you see everywhere in Italy. Plus they had sprinkles on their cones, which was an added bonus.
After gelato, we found a place that had internet and bought 15 minutes each for 1 euro (super pricey!) where we got our Internet fix for the day (and when we updated our blog post telling people we weren’t dead since we couldn’t post for 3 days). We then headed to the Spanish Steps. We got lost a bit, but it was nice wandering the streets of Rome. We finally found our way with the help of these convenient McDonald signs everywhere. We’ve noticed that in Italy, McDonalds has street signs telling you, with an arrow, where the nearest McDonald’s is and how long it takes to get there. The Spanish Steps were filled with people. We had fun just sitting on them and watching the sky turn colors as the sun set. I even changed my camera to black and white setting so it would be more Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday-esque. 
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