Yes, our route was kind of illogical, and if we would have put a little more planning into it we probably wouldn't have come back to Venice but oh well. It was a really odd sensation to fly back to Rome because in my mind since we were on an airplane, we must be going to Santiago. Nope, we still had two more days in Rome.We took the bus from the airport to the Termini train station again where we met up with Mindy's friends Eric and Leah who were also in Rome. We all went to check in at the same hostel, and the check-in guy was kind of confused to see us again. Once we had put our things in our room, Mindy went out with her friends and Kate and I went in search of food. Since we were in a kind of sketchy part of town we didn't stray too far - just to the other side of the train station. We had a pretty good dinner - not much to choose from since they were almost closing - and when the waiter asked us for dessert Kate said we wanted it only if it was free. The waiter smiled at us then brought this out -
Pretty fancy, huh? When we got our bill, however, we saw that he charged us for it. JERK. He spoke English too, so it wasn't another casualty of the language barrier. To teach him a lesson, we took a page from the menu -
Yes, it was petty but it made us feel better for spending those 8 extra euros. Walking back from dinner we learned just how sketchy our area was. We had to walk down the sidewalk where we had at least 10 pairs of homeless eyes follow us as we walked briskly by their makeshift cardboard beds. When we walked past the Metro stop we heard this echo of someone hitting someone else really hard, and when we peered down it on our power walk past it we saw that there was guy who looked passed out/dead getting wailed on by another man who was putting his whole weight behind his blows. At this point Kate and I join hands and all but run back to the hostel.The next morning we had only one thing on the agenda: the Vatican City. Kate decided to make a political statement to the Vatican -
We were warned that it would be a long wait to get in (about 4 hours) so we were sure to eat/go to the bathroom ahead of time. Once we Metro'ed over there and saw the line, we couldn't believe how long it actually was - 
It almost curved around 1/4 of the whole Vatican. Yikes. It was crowded since it was Easter week. But we had lots of time to chat with the people who were behind us. They were from France and asked Kate for directions and Kate used what little French she knew to tell them what she could, then we tried to small-talk but it was quite stunted by the fact that a) we don't know French and b) they don't know English/Spanish. We also had a lot of time to notice that there were security cameras on the Vatican so God could watch us
We finally got in after only 1.5 hours, which seemed like no time at all since we prepared to wait for 4 hours. This is Kate by the first crucifix we saw in the Vatican Museum - 
Me by some ball thing in the courtyard leading to the museum that is probably famous - 
The first part of the museum consisted of a lot of Roman god statues. I am assuming they were there purely for historical purposes. So we picked our favorites and copied their poses!
Our experience in Rome summed up in a picture - historical things that are probably famous for some reason unknown to us - 
Once we made it out of that wing, we went through the courtyard again to find what we had really come to see - The Sistine Chapel. This sign was one of many horrible, horrible lies. There is no way to see the Sistine Chapel without walking through the whole museum. And let me tell you, it is one big/crowded museum. There was hardly any time to stop and look at anything because the wave of people would sweep you away. This got really irritating, and combine that with being on your feet for about 4 hours and you'll understand a little of what it was like to visit the Vatican Museum. 
That isn't to say that we didn't enjoy the beautiful, ornate artwork. Unlike most museums that I have been to, every single little part of the Vatican Museum - from the ceilings to the floors - seemed like a work of art.
We FINALLY made it to the Sistine Chapel and I couldn't believe how big it was. I was pretty much expecting a little chapel with the ceiling painted. No, this was a gigantic room with every surface area covered in paintings. They said "no pictures" but in a room packed with 200 people no amount of scolding from security guards or warnings from loud speakers can deter the determined tourist.
This is the famous "touch" - it was right in the middle. It was easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. Sorry these are so dark!
We had an overpriced lunch at the cafeteria, but we were so hungry/tired/thirsty after almost 5 hours on our feet that we didn't care. We then set out to see St. Peter's Square, but we took a wrong turn and wound up walking around the whole Vatican.
When you think about it, the Vatican City is really a country, so it is like we literally walked all around a country. :) We saw a lot of graffiti, which was kind of sad to see on the Vatican of all places, but this one in particular surprised us. But why? We tourists sustain your whole economy!
We did finally make it to St. Peter's Square!
Some nice young couple offered to take a picture of the two of us, and come to find out the guy was going to UMKC law next fall. What a small world!
Since it was Ash Wednesday the next day, there were thousands of chairs set up for the mass.
We decided to not see anything more in the Vatican because anything else would have included several more hours of waiting in lines. So we decided to get gelatto and then go see the Trevi fountain. EVERYTHING in the Vatican was super expensive - for example, gelatto which we would have paid 2,50 euros for in Rome was 6,00 in the Vatican. Ouch.Walking to the Metro stop we again got lost, and this time so much so that it was less time to walk to where we were going instead of back-tracking and finding the Metro. On the plus side, we walked off that gelatto and got to see a lot of the city. We saw a lot of what makes Rome a difficult place to see. On one hand, there are incredible historical monuments that beautiful and interesting. On the other hand Rome seems like a city on the edge, there are a ton of homeless people and a lot of graffiti. Rome is a city of severe contrast, and most of the time you don't need to look more than five feet away from anything "rich" to see something desperately poor, such as these homeless people sleeping under one of the famous bridges.
The Trevi fountain was really cool, and legend has it that if you threw a coin into the fountain you'd return to Rome.
And just like with everything else we saw in Rome, there was a wall of people.
By the time we made it back to the hostel we were really tired from the 14 hours walking around, and it was raining, so we skipped dinner all together and went to bed. The next day was really like a half a day since we had to make it to the airport by 3pm. We did manage to see the Spanish Steps -
And Kate bought her ciao bella shirt - 
And we saw a store that pretty much summed up our experience in Italy - 
We flew back to Santiago that evening, enduring for one last time the circus that is Ryanair. I loved our week in Italy, looking back it is amazing that we did so much. If I were to do it again I would like to go with a guide or a tour group, because we saw so many amazing things that we knew nothing about. I think it would have enhanced our experience if we would have understood why things are famous. Not that it detracted from our week at all, I had a great time seeing a country that I have always wanted to see and it was more than I could have ever expected.
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