Well day 2 was a busy one and an amazing one as well. We awoke to an awesome cappuccino/espresso machine in this beautiful hotel.
We then boarded the bus in collared shirts and headed for Vatican City. After bypassing over a thousand waiting customers in line we went through a quick customs/security and headed inside. Mario is our tour guide and he’s been great this whole trip. A great tour guide makes a big difference.
I feel like everytime we are driving through the city with our bus driver, Pino, Mario knows a fact about each and every building on the left and right side. He’s been great. We went into the Vatican and went to a park in the middle where Mario explained to us the meanings of the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and then walked through 2.5 miles of museum before entering the chapel. The museum had every type of sculpture and art you could imagine. The team was very impressed as was I.
The picture above is of a ceiling of one of the hallways of the museum that I found extra special. The pictures appear 3D but are actually only two dimensional, a special painting technique used by the French. Many more pictures will be posted on the photo gallery page if I have time before going to bed tonight.
After the 2.5 miles of museum we finally made our way into the Sistine chapel but werent allowed to take pictures so I have no pics of that but the guys will tell you how amazing it was. After learning about how they choose the Pope and the different facts about the pope we made our way to the St. Peters Cathedral which was 80k square feet. It was massive!! The detail that is put into these buildings is unbelievable and then you think about how it was done 300+ years ago, it’s incredible.
If you can see the letters near the top of the wall in the above picture, they are over 2 meters tall to put into perspective how big it is. After about an hour of listening to Mario in our earpiece we moved out into the square of Vatican City where the Pope makes his appearance after being chosen and on Easter and Christmas.
After leaving there we had the option to either go back to the hotel or get on a bus and go to the city center of Rome as Mario calls it. I chose to explore some of the non touristy Rome and went walking around, found this fountain, can’t remember the name of it though and also the Spanish Stairs.
Enjoyed a delicious ham and cheese sandwich on a cobblestone street and watched a sprinter van hit a building. Returned to the hotel by bus and then did some grocery shopping with Bitts which was kind of a struggle but we made it work. We then ate and received the message that the team had cancelled and so we went anyways and ended up having a good practice with a scrimmage at the end. The gym was like a sauna inside the bubble and the rubber floor was more slippery than
normal so it took some adjusting to.
Husky fans attending practice!
After 1 hour of normal practice drills two Italian guys showed up so they divided into two teams and had a 15 minute scrimmage before we had to leave the gym. Bitts even played, what a surprise. Both these guys are on the team that we will play Wednesday night. One of them is from Oklahoma actually and played Division I basketball for Oklahoma State.
We enjoyed a nice Italian meal with some exceptionally delicious ice cream desert for Kyle Stankowskis birthday and were off to bed as we have a full day tomorrow. Colosseum and Ancient Rome in the morning then leaving for our game which is two hours away then we’ll eat with the team we play and then return around 1 am. This team has been promoting the game so hopefully there’s a good turnout. Probably won’t have a chance to connect tomorrow as its going to be a full day. Go Huskies!
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