The Sixteen Chapels

On Wednesday, we went to the Vatican. St. Peter’s Square and the Basilica are ridiculous big. So much marble and granite and statues and frescos everywhere you look. Then, we went to the sixteen chapels. Okay, well, we went to see the Sistine Chapel. Nobody ever mentions that you have to pay 15 euro’s for a ticket to a museum and that you have to wind through appx 37 different hallways and rooms, each as lavish and beautiful as the next and walk  up and down stairs and wind around and around and around and around and FINALLY, you get to the Sistine. It’s beautiful and awe inspiring for sure. But after all the work to get there…The rest of the day was catching a glimpse of a few other hot spots, such as the Spanish Steps. Then early to bed for an early day.

Next up was Naples or Napoli as they call it. The birthplace of pizza. But we didn’t stay. We started the day in Pompeii, the city that was buried and preserved in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. That was really interesting and the weather was perfect. Next we headed down to Sorrento on the coast and boarded a bus to Amalfi. The Amalfi coast is the one you see in movies with the houses and hotels stacked up the side of the mountains and a road that hugs massive cliffs. We marveled at the sites and then stopped in Amalfi and wandered the streets for a bit. Bought some more gelato and a few souvenirs. Tasted lemoncello!! Its Italian lemon flavored liquor. They make it themselves because there are lemon trees EVERYWHERE!!! So gorgeous.  We even ran into a few people from Austin. They were in line in front of us in the gelato shop. The world is so small sometimes.

The most fun thing for me about traveling is figuring out how to get around, reading signs in other languages and finding good food, supermarkets, pharmacies, ATM’s. Getting to and from your hotel. Once you know the lay of the land and how to get basic amenities, you start to get a sense for how people live and work and communicate. I’d much rather the bus to the corner, hop on a train across the city then ride the subway to our destination. Tourists don’t always do that. The people you see are the locals just living out their lives. So fascinating!