Italia 2017-Day 5 Vatican City

We had a long drive to Rome so it was nice to break up the morning drive in San Gimignano and Siena that were on the way. They say "All roads lead to Rome" and we were excited to take one to get there. The drive to Rome was surreal. You could just see city after city way off in the distance clinging to the hillsides with a church in the center and houses surrounding it and then nothing for a few miles and then you would see another church or bell tower in the distance. I specifically remember holding back the tears as I felt God's love for me so powerfully as I stared out the window and felt the enormity of the earth. I felt so small on that drive to Rome. The world felt so big as those towns felt like they were worlds away and here we were driving down roads, seeing towns we would never see again. It was an overwhelming feeling. I always tell my children that perspective is a powerful thing and I gained some perspective that road to Rome.

We've never been to Rome. We weren't planning on going to Rome but felt very strongly that we needed to add it to our itinerary. When the city was in view I was shocked at how huge it was. Then when we got off the autostrada I was shocked at how dirty it was. Seriously. There was graffiti everywhere. It was so different than northern Italy. We were worried about driving there as Alessia, the apartment owner, advised us not to. We didn't want to take public transportation with our kids so we decided to brave the roads and laugh now because I think no one in Rome drives. We should've taken a picture of the parking garage we parked in. There were 3 cars in the whole structure. Of all the places we went, Rome was by far the easiest place to drive our huge van because there were hardly any cars on the roads. Don't get me wrong, I use the term easiest loosely.  There's nothing easy about driving in Italy. The roads twist and turn and roundabouts every 100 feet and we took the wrong turn plenty of times just as we did in all the cities, it was just without the craziness of 4 cars across and motor scooters weaving in and out of a two lane road and taking a wrong turn kind of driving experience.

It was around 4pm and we wanted to go see St. Peter's Basilica so we parked just outside of Vatican City and walked there. My kids kept saying it should be called Vatican Country not city because it is its own country. It is the smallest country by land and population size in the world. It is a very clean country with Swiss Guards that look like court jesters. The kids got a good laugh as they thought they looked like they were wearing Halloween costumes. As we waited in line to go see St. Peter's Basilica I found it very ironic that here we were, a LDS family on General Conference weekend, in Vatican City, home to the Catholic Church. It was like we were at the 'Temple Sqaure' for Catholics.

St. Peter's Basilica is enormously huge. It's not surprising that it's the largest Christian church in the world. I've seen it and St. Peter's square televised when they've elected a new pope but seeing it in person gives it a whole new perspective and I can't imagine how many people fill the square and the streets of that country during those events because the space is massive.

While the outside is more plain compared to other churches we saw, the inside of the church is probably the most beautiful of all we saw. And by far the brightest interior, although still dark compared to our churches. For the kids I'm sure it was another church with paintings, mosaics, statues, everything we'd already seen. I think the thing that caught their attention was out of all the churches we went to, it was the only one that had confessionals in use. There was a roped off area with a line of people and they were directed to an open confessional booth and we watched as the priest/bishop went and sat behind the curtain and then someone would come kneel on the side. It was interesting to see how differently things are done. We walked through the whole building and went back outside to the square.

We headed back to the apartment for dinner. Andy and Braden went to get pizza. Andy thought he'd be more adventurous with the pizza and try something other than the margherita pizza. He learned that he should've gone the safer route. He didn't even like it. I knew the food would be tough for me and the kids and it proved to be challenge. American Italian is way different than Italian Italian.