The last day...

Rome, last evening

Unbelievably, it's the last day. I had a wonderful trip, but, unlike past rips, I'm not remorseful, or sad, or wishing it wasn't over. I'm so ready for home. I guess because half my life and heart are waiting for me there.

This morning, we sang in the Pantheon, a temple/later church built by Constantine in 118 AD (meaning it was almost 2000 years old). The famous thing about it is that it's dome is in perfect proportions, with the radius exactly the height of the dome itself, and the diameter the height from the floor to the base of the dome. Consequently, it felt incredibly spacious, almost like the roof was open above you. We sang for about 5 minutes (all they would let us, even though we sounded really good), then hurried off back to the Vatican museums for our tour. It took us about 30 minutes walking very fast in the hot sun to get there, but thank God the building, once we got there, was air conditioned.

They had tons of security measures, bag scanners, guards, metal detectors, but it was like even though they had all the stuff, they really didn't care. The guards didn't really watch the bag scanner, people would beep in the metal detector, and they'd just get waved through. It was really stupid.

The way they did our tour was ingenious. The guide had a microphone that broadcasted to little radio things that we had, that then played through earbuds we had, so everyone in the group could hear. Very smart. The tour was about 1 ½ hours, our guide was good, and although I saw some beautiful stuff, I thought the Vatican Museums really weren't worth it, except that it was the only way to get into the Sistine Chapel.

The Chapel was beautiful, but not nearly as big as one would think. It really is just a chapel, which even though that's what the name says, I kept thinking it would be the size of the cathedrals we'd been at. It was breathtaking though. The entrance to the chapel is at the end of a long string of the modern religious art rooms at the museums. You go through it, wondering when all the weird stuff is going to end, you go through a little door, and all of a sudden you're in the chapel. It kind of takes you by surprise, like that entrance just isn't quite grand enough for something so wonderful. Seeing things with your own eyes that you've seen hundreds of times in pictures is really amazing, which is kind of how this whole Italy trip has been. The fresco of God and Adam touching pointer fingers always moves me, and I loved seeing it. My only complaint was the massive number of people, making impossible to even try to stay together as a group, and the whole experience a little less comprtable.

Our tour took a lot longer than we had expected, so we got out without having had lunch, and with an hour and a half to get to our tour of the Catacombs. Aimee was in the other half of the group with the Hakilas, so when our group finished the tour, we decided to make our way to the Catacombs ourselves. At 3:30, nearly 2 hours, 3 bus rides, and massive amounts of confusion later, half our group, which amounted to 14 people (the other half had lost hope, and gone back to the hotel) arrived at the Catacombs, where we found that the rest of the people we were meeting had thought it was just too difficult to get there, and we were on our own. We raided the scantily supplied vending machines since no one had eaten anything since the roll that was breakfast, and bought our own tickets, determined not to give up after the ridiculous amount of trouble we took to get there.

It was cold down there, and actually a little creepy and morbid. I'm glad I did it, and it was cool (literally and figuratively), but the tour was only about 15 minutes, and there really wasn't much to see, except hundreds of feet of stone and earth corridors stretching ahead of you, and empty graves rising above you. Historically, it was awesome, but I've never felt eerie before in any place I've gone, except there. It would make a great setting for a creepy movie.

Our return trip was nearly as epic as the ride to get there, but it was a little smoother since we sort of knew what to do. I forced myself to not worry about what to do, and let the people more capable than me tell me what to do, and therein, learned a great life lesson: save yourself a lot of stress by knowing when you need to take charge, and when to sit back and let others do it.

I enjoyed the whole crazy day a lot more because of that.

I was hoping to do some shopping afterwards, but since we didn't straggle back into home base until after 5, that didn't happen. We went to dinner at a little restaurant called Miscellane where at least one group of us has eaten lunch and dinner every day we've been here. I had the best caprese (fresh tomatoes and mozzarella in thick slices) there I've ever had, along with 2 shots of the “sexy wine” they have, and some dessert they brought out since it was Davis's birthday.

Altogether, it was an epic day, a fitting end to this epic/crazy/wonderful/irritating/fun/nearly perfect trip. I was planning to post this tomorrow morning before we leave, but I found out our bus to the airport is leaving at 7, and we have to load our bags at 6:45, so that idea went out the window. It's actually wonderful that we have a bus, and don't all have to take separate taxis (which would be a nightmare), so I'm not going to complain. I'm just so glad to be coming home, that no matter what happens tomorrow, I think I will be the eternal optimist. My heart and mind are full to overflowing with sights, and thoughts, and feelings, and experiences, that I've hardly processed them all, but the one overriding emotion is home-readiness. My heart yearns for Nick, for my bed, for my sister, for sweet tea...

I'm coming home.