Nutella Gelato

We've been busy busy today.

Last night we went to Campo Di Fiori for drinks/dinner. We partook in "apertivo", which is basically happy hour food and a drink for a reduced price. For only 8 euros we got wine and a sampling of snacks. It was delicious and we sat outside and faced the plaza. It was lovely! We had planned on dinner afterwards, but we filled up on our bargain snacks. Thus, we headed for gelato.

Using our Lonely Plante guidebook (we are convinced that it was written by college students that spent all of their assignment money on beer and therefore filled the remainer of the guidebook in with wikipedia info). Anyway, in typical Pollock/Shuping style, we wandered the streets of Rome for quite some time in search of the perfect gelato. Luckily it paid off and we returned back to our hostel exhausted and satisfied.

We woke up early this morning to head to the Vatican. Turns out, Wednesday means the Pope is coming! So....we saw the Pope up close and personal. Disclaimer: "up close and personal" actually means that we played Where's Waldo with the Pope as he drove through hordes of Catholics and tourists. The closest we came is actually through the viewfinder of someone else's camera. Regardless, it was awesome!

Next we headed to the Vatican Museum. We saw lots of old paintings and statues. I (Shayna) have developed a conspiracy regarding the ehem, packages, or lack thereof, on all of the statues. They are all missing! Valerie isn't convinced but once I find the room of severed parts in the Vatican....It cannot possibly be just a coincidence. We also saw the Sistine Chapel (wow) and went into Saint Peter's Basilica (it was a madhouse).

Next we walked from the Vatican to the Pantheon. It was certainly an adventure, but Valerie, recently dubbed "navigation queen," pulled through for us. We saw some neat places along the way! We also walked to the Colosseum, but it was closed. We saw the outside but we will return tomorrow.

Exhausted from a long day and lots of walking, we went to another part of town for dinner. We had pasta and wine followed by Gelato (of course!). We are totally exhausted and our legs are super sore, but we are headed out for some more fun tonight.

Thanks for staying through that entire post (I know it was brutal)! Headed to Florence tomorrow afternoon!