Rome so far has been a lot of fun. The city is wonderfully old, with so much to do. Yesterday morning I got a late start, then went to see a special Van Gogh exhibition they have on here in Rome. It was an amazing amount of work, spanning his artistic career (if you can call it that, he sold only one painting in his lifetime). I especially enjoyed getting to look at his letters and the drawings he would include in them.

< The only real downside to that exhibit is that it is really popular, I was definitely bumped and jostled almost the entire time. It was hard to really enjoy the works, but I managed to anyway. After that exhibit I headed to the colosseum, I bought a Roma Pass to skip the insanely long lines which served me well. I also participated in the guided tour. It was a great introduction to the building, and little did I know that it also included a tour of the archaeological excavations of the Palatine hill. Overall, for four euros, the tour was definitely worth it.

It was amazing to see the remains of the homes of the emperor, and having a guide describe just how ornately decorated these buildings would have been helps to imagine the splendor these ruins once had.

Today was another late start. I have been up too late most nights reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and now its sequel. Really great stories, although a few unfortunate translation decisions. (I’m assuming this, I don’t read Swedish)

I decided to see the Vatican Museum and have stumbled across my second rule:

Liam’s travel rules #2:
Get up early for popular attractions.

I waited in line for over an hour and a half. It turns out it was well worth it. Apart from the massive collection of things the Vatican has acquired the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel are worth the lineup and price alone. I also got the audio guide which I felt enhanced my experience.

“School of Athens”

Me in the Sistine Chapel

I have definitely started to hit a wall though, once I left the Vatican I decided to get back to the hostel and do some reading, while drinking a Fanta of course. I think tomorrow I will either go the musical instruments museum or the national gallery. Not sure which yet… We’ll see when I wake up.