Italian whirwind - Rome part 2 (Vatican museums and Sistine Chapel)

Blur shot I know. And illegal too...oops. I couldn´t resist taking one photo and many people were taking too. It was way smaller than expected and pretty inconspicuous since there were so many other gorgeous paintings on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.

I know that this is so outdated and I did toy around with the idea of not blogging my last day in Rome. However, since I don´t have my camera yet, I took it as a sign that I should get down to sorting out my photos so I can give myself a pat on the back, knowing that I have finished what I started!

".... I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.....one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14

Its not how one starts, its how one finishes. I´m reminded to persevere and complete whatever God has given me to do.

On the second day in Rome, we walked around a bit before giving in to fatigue. All that walking around Venice, Florence, Pisa and Rome really took its toll on our feet and my back. Hence, we opted for an easier alternative - To take the city bus with multi-lingual translations to go around various tourist attractions, while still being able to hop on and off to visit them.

We sunburnt ourselves sitting on the scorching upper deck of the bus. I never could understand why tourists did that in Singapore and now I did the exact same thing in Rome. Top:My overexhausted beanie towards the end of the day.
Bottom: What we looked like at the beginning

Il Foro Romano - ruins that must be more than 1,000 years old

Some nicer snapshots of the amazing buildings in Rome that I took from the bus. One marvels at the architectural advancement that existed in ancient times.

The Obelisk (center) was brought to Egypt by Augustus in 30 BC and dedicated to the sun

Looks a bit like Munich city centre, if you were to ask me

Il Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele Il

I just love the feel of this photo, old-style building, blue skies, framed by a bit of greenery

A snapshot of a street from the bus - not too bad eh. Considering how shaky it was.

Interior of the Vatican Museums - This place is sooo huge and there´s so much to see that 2 hours inside was barely enough to see 10% of the entire place! Any museum fan definitely has to visit this place.

Can you believe the entire roof is Mosaic? The sheer dedication and time one takes to complete something that size is indescribeable.
 
More mosaic - this time it was on the floor

Some Egyptian artefacts where I even saw a real mummified body in a coffin!

A typical hallway inside the Vatican museum - as I said, stunning....I´m not a fan of museums but I would really want to visit this museum again, if we go back to Rome
We took a walk along the river before heading back to the hotel. Night life in Rome reminded me a lot of Boat Quay in Singapore. Bustling with street fare and young people even past midnight!

Ending our trip in style. We had a couple dinner at another great Italian restaurant that was more than 400 yrs old. Here we had a live Italian band that sang for us. However that old man (in the middle) was so hilarious that it was more than worth it. He asked Stephan what type of songs he wanted, to which he replied "any love song". He ended up singing "Love me tender, love me true" only to Stephan! It was hilarious because Stephan turned red and everybody were rolling in laughter.

I wanted my beanie to give the camera back to me

We had grilled trout, tomato pasta, salad and Tiramisu (again)!

Another similarity to Singapore:- They have the coin machine with a surprise too! The watermelon was cut to look like the Colosseum.

So long for now, that´s all I have for my entire Italy trip! Yay hay. Finally finished it after 1 month!