Finally! We arrived at the Vatican City! This picture was taken after we had breakfast at our hotel. We then had to take the train and avoid all the people who were trying to sell us tours or supposedly discounted tickets. Then, we had to navigate our way through a sea of people at the entrance before finally getting to the first few exhibits at the actual museum.
Every single room in the Vatican was grand. There were so many galleries and so many things to look at that it was all a blur! I think we visited the Art Gallery first, where there was a huge amount of religious art being displayed everywhere. After that, we went to the Ancient Egyptian exhibit. The room with the mummy and the sarcophagus was so ridiculously packed with tourists. All I could do was to snap a few pictures here and there. There were canopic jars, hieroglyphs carved into stone, and cat figurines of course. Spotted a statue of Anubis and also one of Sekhmet in this semicircular room where all the larger statues were kept.
We had to walk down so many corridors and each looked just as majestic as the next. The corridors never seemed to end and we did not have time for all the exhibits! We came across the Hall of Animals, which was supposed to make up a stone zoo. There were huge Roman sculptures in every corner.
There was this hall that was filled with ancient maps and it was interesting to see how the world was viewed by people in the past! I feel like we could have spent the entire day here but the walking was really killing me and we needed to get some lunch. I think it is impossible to fully explore every single part of the museum in just a single day.
We popped into a Chinese restaurant called "Ni Hao" that sold Japanese food (so I guess it's just an Asian restaurant?) and I ordered a meal that came with soup, sashimi, sushi, rice and chicken, all for under 10 euros I think! Basically, Asian restaurants are just way cheaper.
Obviously, we had to take some pictures at St. Peter's Square!
So beautiful! The columns remind me of the scene in Disney's Hercules, you know? The scene when Hercules does not know his strength and he accidentally causes all the columns are the marketplace to collapse like dominoes. That scene was probably based on the columns at St. Peter's Square.
In front of St. Peter's Basilica!
Okay, I just had to try and fit all the columns into the a panoramic picture.
There were some Christmas decorations on display behind us.
After this, we headed to Largo di Torre Argentina, a square that used to house four temples and a theatre, but all that's left are remains.
The main attraction for us was actually the cat sanctuary! We walked around and spotted a cat. After that, we found the entrance quite easily.
After going down a flight of steps, you'd see a little entrance. The shelter is located under a busy road, so the first thing I noticed when I stepped in was all the noise and vibrations of cars above us. But the cats are totally fine with it!
Some of them were sleeping soundly next to the objects that were displayed for purchase. They are used to the presence of admirers and visitors too!
Just like any other respectable shelter, the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary takes care of cats of all kinds. There were fluffy cats and regal-looking cats, but there were also cats who were missing an eye, and cats who suffered from other physical disabilities. But it didn't matter because all of the cats were so sweet!
One of the ladies who worked there told us stories about the cats! There was a cat in particular who was knocked down by a car and had some health issues, but it was extremely friendly and it kept approaching us! I could not take a clear picture of it since it kept moving around. Ugh, so cute!
I bet this fluffy one was adopted shortly after our visit!
There's also this programme that the shelter runs called "Distant Adoption". Basically, you can be a sponsor of one of these cats if you make a monthly donation, and the shelter will give you updates on the cat you have "adopted"! We found it a little too costly (we are poor) but I think it's a great idea.
In the end, before we left, we bought a black tote bag. There were many other items on sale too, and you can buy these items to support the sanctuary. (If you don't, you'd be judged by the cats there)
Next stop: Piazza Navona. I wish I could've taken a beautiful picture of this place in the day as well! People were just hanging out at the square and the ambiance was really nice. The grand building in the picture above is Sant'Agnese in Agone, a 17th century church. It's near the Fountain of the Four Rivers. (also pictured above)
I think that this is Fontana del Moro, the fountain located at the south end of the square.
Fountain of Neptune is located at the north end. There were also horse-drawn carriages in the square.
After looking around, we boarded a bus down to Trastevere. My boyfriend wanted to bring me to an Italian restaurant to try the best carbonara in Italy, but apparently, he did not know that you needed to make a reservation beforehand. (Research fail!) The waiter at the restaurant claimed that they were fully booked, although from the outside, the place seemed almost empty. It was rather strange.
Anyway, it didn't matter in the end because we just strolled down the streets and popped into Ristorante da Augustea, a random restaurant we found. I didn't like the pork that I had ordered because I found it too chewy for my liking, but the potatoes were nice.
My boyfriend thought the meat was yummy, so he was willing to trade me his delicious carbonara! (The perks of having a wonderful boyfriend) I should've just ordered this in the first place. It's okay though, ordering the meat was still worth it because of the potatoes.
(I know it's taking me forever to blog about this trip but I'm just so busy with work. I'm trying my best to blog whenever I can and hopefully I'll finish blogging about this trip before the year ends!)
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