Today, Allison and I woke up pretty early to get our free breakfast and then went to Vatican city. We were going to do it on our own, but when we saw the line for the Vatican museum, we decided we should look for the blue dot tour group we had taken part in yesterday, in hopes of cutting the line again. I thought they were meeting at 9:30, and Allison thought they were meeting at Footlocker, but we weren't sure, so at 9:35 we started running in that direction. Then, we saw the blue dots and made a big U-turn and joined the group! Kate was again the tour guide, and she gave us all headsets so she could talk to us no matter where we were and direct us around. Alas, we didn't get to cut the line, but it really was only about a two hour wait. She took us into the Vatican museum, which has endless statues and works of art. There is a purple stone from Egypt...I can't remember what it's called...but the world's supply is used up, and 90% of it is at the Vatican. The biggest piece is a huge bowl that Nero and his wife used to bathe in. Since it is so rare, each cubic inch of the stuff is worth 12,000euro. If the Vatican sold all of it, they could end world debt four times over. Also, it is so hard to cut through, they cannot figure out how the Egyptians were able to cut and shape it...sawing with a modern saw for an hour would only get you 3cm in. We also saw statues of Hercules, Emperor Hadrian, and his lover Antinous, "the most attractive man in the history of the world." To which Kate said, "And nothing has changed today...the most attractive ones are always gay." We then went through the beautiful Room of the Maps, a room dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and saw a statue of Apollo (?) who was a Bill Clinton look-alike. Finally, the Sistine Chapel. It was closing in a half hour, and there were tons of people. Kate took us through the shortcut...I don't know if we would have made it inside without her. She told us a lot of interesting facts, including Michaelangelo was not the first choice for the ceiling. Brachelli and Raphael, the big artists of the time, we supposed to do the ceiling for the Pope, but they were too busy partying and doing other works. They thought it would be funny to suggest Michaelangelo, a sculptor, for the impossible task of painting the ceiling fresco-style. They were certain he would mess it up, and then they would save the day. However, obviously, Michaelangelo did an amazing job and became famous for his work. He started by sketching statues and basing the figures off of Greek statues. He didn't know how to do women because there were only statues of men and he was a loner without a girlfriend, so all of the women are more like men with dresses...they are all very muscular and butch if you really look at them. Afterwards, we went into St. Peter's Basilica, the largest Catholic church in the world. I loved the orange stained glass window, and the wavy candles and wavy columns. We saw Michaelangelo's Pieta statue in here as well, along with some tombs of the Popes. A Protestant artist was commissioned to do one of the statues for one of the popes ( I can't remember who) but he put his own face on it and everyone knew when it was unveilied. They decided not to remove it, but they keep this Protestant piece of art above the broom closet and do not point it out. I was glad Kate was showing us all of these secret things. Then we saw the doors of death, which only two people decided to exit through...she talked to us outside briefly, pointing out the Swiss guards dressed in their jester outfits and the Papal residence. She also advised against cllimbing up the five hundred something steps to the top of the basilica because it was very narrow and slanted. After the wonderful tour, Allison and I took a lot of pictures at St. Peter's square, and then ate some lunch since we were starving. We went back to the hostel to shower and then set out again for Tratsevere, a bohemian neighboorhood in the south of Rome. Here, everything was golden lit, the streets were narrow and windy, and artisans sold their creations on the street. We had a wonderful dinner at a small cafe, and then found beautiful silver and stone rings from street artists. We also found a store with very unique shoes. We went to the Santa Maria in Tratsevere church as a service was ending, just before it closed for the night...we seem to have impeccable timing. It was a beautiful church. Then, we got some gelati at Caffe di Marzio and as we left the gelati place, we stopped to watch a street performer. He was a fake magician, more of a comedian. He was putting a hoop in front of a toy gnome and then hitting the gnome when he didn't jump through. He beat up the gnome pretty badly, and then started to revive him with CPR. Then, he lifted up the lid of his box really quickly so the gnome jumped through. He also "took hair" from some of the audience member's heads, and then "hammered" them onto a bald guy. He threw a fake crocodile into a bag and pretended to chop it up with a fake knife, and then pulled out a crocodile print bag. And he would mess with people walking by, by putting up construction cones as they walked past or whistling at them or throwing red carpets at their feet. It was a wonderful thing to stumble upon. Allison and I ended our night in Tratsevere at a cool bar called Caffe di Scala, but then we had to catch the bus back before it stopped running. We went out with Constantino to a jazz bar named Greggory's and then came back and hung out with some of the other guys at the hostel. We were soooo tired, and finally went to sleep.