The Vatican

I. Saw. The. Pope.

Okay, so for the locals, it's probably not that big of a deal, but I started fangirling so hard when he came out, mostly because it was so unexpected. My university dropped us off at the Vatican, telling us to meet up again at 1:30 but failing to mention that the Pope comes out every Sunday at noon. Luckily, my friends and I had planned to go to St. Peter's Basilica at just the right moment, and after about 30 seconds of wondering what the huge crowd was all about, we saw Pope Francis on a big screen and found places where we could see the man himself.

There he is! In the window with the red banner!

Thank goodness for the crowd or we might have missed the Pope speaking.

The Vatican was so awe-inspiring. Inside the museum and especially in the Sistine Chapel, practically every inch of wall space in every room is filled with intricate paintings or tapestries or statues. The talent and time it must have taken the artists is absolutely mind-boggling. And because I'm a Christian, seeing all the religious scenes was incredibly humbling.

Every inch of the rooms, from floor to ceiling, was covered with intricate artwork.

Some of the paintings of carvings were so realistic that I needed a double-take to figure out whether they were 3D.

By the end of our outing, we were so wiped out. We'd gone to bed late after having issues trying to figure out the public transportation (we kept missing buses and trams by mere seconds), so walking 10 miles on about three hours of sleep was exhausting to say the least. But I'm hoping that getting into a regular schedule with classes starting will help offset all the jet lag.