Today was one of the earliest mornings on the whole tour. I woke up at 5:30 and had breakfast at 6:30. Then at 6:45, we got on a shuttle to the metro. During breakfast, I sat with a Canadian guy named James who lost his passport and had to come into Rome with us to try to find the Canadian Embassy. What a nightmare.
Kellie got on the metro with us and we had to keep getting off and changing trains. They were all super full and people kept getting lost/separated, and Serena H. got pickpocketed in the midst of it all. I'm surprised we all eventually made it to our destination. The first place we went was the Colosseum for those of us doing the optional Imperial tour (€26).
The tour was good, but it kept raining so it was kind of hard to enjoy it. She showed us pictures of what the Colosseum used to look like and then we had about 30 seconds to wander around on our own before doing the Forum part of the tour. The tour guide had a habit of saying "don't forget" in every sentence, so there was a lot to remember (Too bad I already forgot most of it).
After the Forum, we got back on the metro to the Vatican. We had a quick lunch stop where I had pizza and gelato (berry and mango). Then we did a (very long) tour of the Vatican (€34). It was a good tour, but my feet were killing me by this point, so I didn't fully appreciate everything and just kept trying to find places to sit down. The Sistine Chapel was pretty impressive, though.
Those of us who had big bags with us for the Vatican tour had to check them at the entrance, so we had to figure out how to get back after the tour. Jane took us in circles a couple of times, but we eventually found it. Then some people decided to stay in Rome for dinner while the rest of us just wanted to go back with Kellie. So we went and got snacks (I had another gelato--peach this time) and then met Kellie at the metro station.
When I got back to the campsite, I took a nice long shower since I finally didn't have anyone waiting for me. Then we had dinner, and it was a really awesome chicken parmesan with noodles and salad. Apparently the people who stayed in town got lost and ended up having to take cabs back, but they got back in time to eat a second dinner.
After dinner, most people went to an "I <3 Roma" party at the bar up the hill. I just went to bed early as usual, though.
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