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Two College Students Visit The Vatican

I visited Vatican City during the beginning of April of 2006 as a student backpacking through Europe. Lucky for my travelling partner and I, our train arrived in Rome at 7 AM, making it too early to check into our hostel. The reason we were lucky is that as the day progresses the line to enter the Vatican gets longer and longer. You could be left waiting for as many as four hours, depending on what time of year it is. And waiting for four hours in the hot Italian sun is no way to spend an afternoon.

So after a hearty McDonald's breakfast(I know, shameful as it is, but we were a bunch of broke college students) we decided to head over to the Vatican. As we waited in line people tried to sell us absurd things like flashing spinning toys. Watch out for these scam artists, they seem to be everywhere, especially in the tourist hot spots. Just ignore them and all will be well. If you show the slightest bit of interest in what they're selling be prepared for a long conversation.

There are a lot of old women beggars dressed in that Italian black draped cloth. I think that means they’re widows(that's based on my Godfather Part II knowledge so I don't know how accurate it is). They sit on the street, staring at the ground as the sun begins to pound. It's hard not to look at them and feel a degree of melancholy.

Lucky for us it's only 8 Euros for students to enter. That's one more glass of wine we can have later on. Now on to the main event. In order to get to the Sistine Chapel you have to go through a world of exhibits and tourists. The build up, the build up…boom builds.

When we finally reached, the work of art was amazing, although being surrounded by a sea of tourists as well as large security guards who constantly yell out "NO PHOTO!" in thick Italian accents breaks the mood a little. Still we lingered for at least 20 minutes till our necks were sore from the constant looking up. The sense of grandeur is something that can only be captured in person.

Once we exited the Sistine Chapel we entered St. Peter's Basilica, which I always referred to as a cathedral, but as I learned that was incorrect. The dome like religious center was spectacular, and something I enjoyed even more than Michelangelo's grand master work. It's a lavish place, containing several tombs of former Popes. The dome and altars are fantastic and you can only marvel at the ingenuity required to build such a structure hundreds of years ago.

After our visit to the Vatican we trekked back to our hostel and slept for about 8 hours. We had probably been awake for 28 hours straight. As I shut my eyes I happily thought of the image on the Sistine Chapel of God's hand that stretched out to Adam and I let out a relaxed smile as I enjoyed the memory while blocking out the sound of a bulky Italian man yelling out "No Photo!"