Vatican

Yesterday we toured the Vatican. We used the same tour company as with the Coliseum, but results weren't as good. The Vatican was packed with huge tours so we had to use ear phones to hear our guide even though our group was only 5. Between shoddy connections and her accent, it was sometime difficult to hear. It wasn't that bad, though, so it was still enjoyable.

Tom was underwhelmed by the Sistine Chapel, but did you really expect anything else from such a non-believer? Saint Peter's Church was insanely big. We couldn't get over how enormous it was. We also went below to see some of the Pope's graves. John Paul II's had a crowd and a security person. We were both angry that the Roman's seemed to have a thing for statues of little boys killing cute baby animals. They were the true barbarians!

Our tour was in the afternoon, so by the time we got back, it was time to go to dinner. We tried a place around the corner from our hotel, that came highly recommended by the hotel staff. April had a bad experience the night before with the shrimp (they just fried the whole thing and left it for her to dissect!) so she took extra precautions with the waiter this time, including drawing a shrimp in his notepad. Unfortunately, the language barrier was too great and another 2 shrimp carcasses came out on her plate. Luckily, Tom came to rescue and cut the heads off on his plate and hid them under his garnish. Despite the scary presentation, the shrimp and the rest of the food was actually very good. And in what seems to be a dining tradition for us, two thirds of the time we spent at the restaurant turned out to be time waiting for the check after we asked for it. We can't quite figure out what happens during the course of the meal but at some point, our waiters just forget about us. The worst part is, we end up sitting at the table like idiots with no food or drink or cake. Anyway, Tom took matters into his own hands and went looking for our waiter who, as it turns out, was about a foot away from our table, filling waterbottles. Tom asked for the check for the second time and after about ten minutes, another waiter brought our check over. We paid and bounced.