Unlike the last time I was in Rome, we were at a less busy spot in the port, we probably could have walked out easily, but instead took he free shuttle at 8am, which I also think was earlier than they started running the last time.  We made the earliest train we could and got off at the San Pietro station before 10.  This train was PACKED.  We walked to St. Peter's Square and I was surprised the lines weren't like the last time.  We moved pretty quickly inside St Peter's and had plenty of time to take it all in.  Snagged a couple of post cards, which I had already gotten postage for, and wrote them up quickly to mail from Vatican City before we headed for the Scavi tour.

You'd think it would be cool underground like that but it was not it was warm and humid, but it was easily mid-90's outside in Rome.  This was very far the neatest thing we did... The history given to us was awesome, I had not realized that St Peter's bones were truly found right there where the Vatican sits, and we were even able to see the container where they're housed from a bit of a distance.  As you move up into the grottos you can see where all of the popes are laid to rest.  VERY VERY cool... Dani enjoyed the church as well.

From there we walked around the wall to the Museum.  I'll admit, if we could have I probably would have cut through to get to the Sistine chapel and not spend much time in the Vatican museums, but in retrospect I am very glad there isn't a shortcut.  There is so very much there.  We didn't go slowly by any stretch, but it still took quite a while to get through and was worth gawking about.  Frankly, the Sistine chapel was a bit of a disappointment at the end.  Everything says you'll get shushed and yelled at for cameras, and they did have us put the cameras away on the way in, but once inside everyone had their phones out and up in the air taking pictures.  Sorry, but if they're doing it, so am I... so snap snap snap.  It was also quite loud.  Amusingly, others we talked to said when they were there they did get shushed and cameras were very much so nixed.  So I guess we got lucky and were there when some guards were on lunch break!

We stopped to grab something to eat and it pretty much sucked... the artichokes I ordered were so salty they were almost inedible and the pizza (yes again) still disappointed Dani.  There was 4 blobs of buffalo motz cheese on it a couple halved cherry tomatoes, and one spring of basil in the middle... no sauce (as I warned her).  It wasn't much to write home about.

Here is the only place we had a bit of a worry during the trip... we made it to the train station (San Pietro) and only two trains left we could take to get back in time.  The later would get us in at 6, the shuttle stopped at 6, and we'd need to hoof it (fast) to the ship by 6:30 - way too tight.  The earlier turned out to be a fast train, which should not have been included on our BIRG ticket.  We took our chances and boarded it anyhow, validating our tickets like good little girls.  I figured they'd check us after we got moving and we'd get in trouble in some way, needing to pay more, but we couldn't afford to wait for the other train.  We did get checked... the guy looked at our tickets for the validation and handed them back thanking us, nothing else said.  Talk about major crisis/worry averted.  I think he was just being nice, very nice.

We were so busy we didn't get to head anywhere else, I really do wish we had had two days there, there is so much in Rome I would have loved to show Dani.

We returned, showering quickly and feeling pretty okay despite the heat and long day.  Another show with the singers and dancers, one I've seen a couple times before - they really need to create a few more shows.  Another free drink at another welcome event for C&A - yay!