All things left out...

As thorough as that blog was sammy, it wasn't enough to cover a few essentials...namely the Vatican! On Friday, Justin (our very attractive yet very arrogant) tour guide took us on a 5 hour tour of the Vatican. Let recap, Vatican is the smallest country in the world, but it is also the richest. It likes to keep its currency within its walls and sells for about 3 Euros for a Vatican Euro. It houses 120 swiss guards and their families of which we know one! (Sup Timmy?). The pope is the king/president/big kahuna of the Vatican and he has a direct line to god. He can also excommunicate anyone he pleases (that means he decides who he can send to hell). German by origin, he is not very popular with the people. They "lovingly" call him "joey the rat" or "paparazzi". Justin, our tour guide, gave us a quick history of the Vatican and the origin of the term. Ironically, the name "Vatican" came from pagean origins from the goddess that guards the doors to the other side - Vaticinia. He talked about Nero (the most effed up emperor of the Rome that was said to have conspired to start the great 64AD fire) and his extra curricular activites... lets just say that he likes playing dress-up alot and really got into his character. We saw the beautiful Sistine Chapel and learned about all the biblical stories Michealangelo depicted on the panels. But the real master piece was "The last Judgement" by Michealangelo... he was commissioned to paint that in the latter part of his life and he resented the Catholic church for it. Its absolutely magnificint and breaks all last judgement molds. We also left the tour to check out my favorite painting... "The School of Athens" by Rafaeal! I knew it was big, but didn't expect it to be as large in scale has it really was! Finally, we ended the tour in St. Peters Basilica. A cool fact, all Popes are "decendants" of St. Peter (Jesus's bff). From the Basilica, we saw where the Pope's window was and the balcony where he waves to his people from.
OH! I almost forgot... before the tour started, Justin took us to the best Sandwich shop in the city! I am not sure what it was called but it has hot sandwiches (even for a vegeterian like me!) that were simply delicious! Danielle and I then shared some gelato (Coconut, Chocolate Hazelnut and Black Cherry - mmmmmm!). Needless to say, with the ample amouts on pastarias and pizzarias all over Rome neither of us starved.

So now here we are... in Switzerland having the best time with Kevin and his dad. Last night they made us an amazing meal (even something for a vegeteriain like me that they have never met) and we enjoyed apertif - appetizers to open up our hunger with wine and then rice veggies and some sort of meat - wouldn't know. For desert we had 5 different types of cheeses with wine and then Jean Luc (Kev's dad) gave us enough cocolate to make us all obese for a lifetime... so guess what i'm bringing back parent?

Earlier that day, we went Geneva to explore the city. All you poli si majors out there... we saw the United Nations and WTO! Couldn't see anything from inside as it was a national holiday and all shops were closed... lucky wallet. We also walked around the lake, which the Swiss (not Genevans) don't like being called Lake Geneva but rather Lac Leman due to the fact that the lake (monsterous in size) is not ONLY associated with Geneva.... oof Europeans! :) We saw the largerst man made geyser and even ran through it! (Pics to come)... and finally closed the day enjoying some icecream by the water filled with swans.

We are now headed off to Luasane to shop and chill before we jump on a train back to Paris! We are going to attempt to go up the Eiffle Tower ( hopefully in the knick of time) and see the Arc de Triumph by night! The trip is almost over and we are all a little sad as we enjoy our last day in Europe. We are looking forward to sharing our stories and pictures in person! See you all very soon. Much love people of America! See you in a few days!