Hanging out with Benedict

This will hopefully conclude my Eurotrip posts since I have been back in the country for almost three weeks and still haven't finished them. Abbie covered some of this already, but that is irrelevant.

Our first task upon arriving in Rome was to find the hostel. Abbie is so adept with public transportation in Prague that we were pretty confident that we could pull this off. Unfortunately, the Italians run some hard-to-use buses. After riding a crowded train and subway for about an hour, we boarded this bus that sounded like it was about to explode any second. Some guy on the bus somehow knew exactly which hostel was our destination, so he starts giving me directions in difficult-to-understand English. I thought I heard something about 3 stops and a bridge and some other rambling before he got off the bus.

In about three stops we alight from the bus, looking around for the highway crossover that our directions mention which also happens to be nowhere in sight. Undaunted, we forge ahead on foot. Daunted, we noticed that the sidewalk ended in about 20 feet. Oh, did I mention it was pouring rain? This is the time that I discovered that Italy is not the most beautiful country while you are edging down the highway in the pouring rain with cars zipping by two feet away and suitcase wheels that get caught in potholes. We finally found the place before we turned in to roadkill or ended our relationship out of crippling frustration.

The next day, we braved the buses again to visit the Vatican. The five block long line was totally worth it for we got to become secret service agents. This was a little intense because, in the course of 20 minutes, we foiled three assassination attempts and helped an old lady cross the street. When we finally got inside, the artwork was not bad, I suppose. I mean, I have a better looking painting than this in my very own room, but I guess that Michelangelo fellow wasn't too bad.We strolled through the museums and chapels there for a few hours and got lost looking for the Sistine Chapel. At the end of our time here was the fateful Breaking of the Camera, about which you can read here.

We then saw the Basilica, which was pretty awesome. The best part about this place was the guards all walking around. They looked pretty fierce.

After this, a little walking around the city seemed to be in order, so that's what we did. All of the walking was pretty exhausting, so we stopped a couple of times for some footrubs.
Well, I didn't finish all the Rome stuff as I had intended. I should probably hire somebody who can churn out these posts more quickly than me. Anybody interested? I will pay you in high fives.