mybigadventures.com

Whilst Dani has been finishing her marking, I thought I'd add a bit more content to the site. During our American adventure in 2013, the site was down and so there was no blog content. When I redeveloped the site a couple of years ago, I uploaded the photo albums but was a bit disappointed there was no description of our trip that I could link. However, on each of our big adventures -  Europe, America and Japan, we have kept a journal, which we've later turned into a photo book. So today I added the journal entries to the site and linked them into the relevant albums. It's still a work in progress, but should be complete over the next day or so, then I might look to do the same with Europe and Japan. You can find all the new entries under July and August 2013, or by following the tag #America2013

Having spent so long at the Vatican yesterday we didn't manage to visit St Peter's basilica, so we went today instead. Getting there was nice and straightforward taking much the same route as yesterday. We approached the basilica from via de porta angelica in what is basically a straight line from the station entering piazza San Pietro from the side. We immediately joined the long line that was snaking around two thirds of the perimeter of the piazza to enter the basilica. It didn't take long to get in as it was just a queue to get through security and as such was constantly moving, taking us about 30 minutes in total. 

The first thing we decided to do was visit the cupola. We opted for the lift tickets which you can get for 7 Euros as apposed to the 5 euro tickets where you have to climb an extra 200 steps. After the lift you do have to climb a further 300 steps and as you approach the top of the dome the space gets a bit narrow so not ideal if you're a bit claustrophobic. once at the top the 360 degree view is spectacular, with views as far as the eye can see taking in sights such as the piazza below, the pantheon, castle Sant'Angelo and Vatican city itself including the pope's private residence. We stayed up there for about an hour before heading back down to explore the basilica itself.

The basilica is as breathtaking as the view above containing works of art by Bernini and Michaelangelo to name a couple. We spent quite a while looking at the sculptures and painted domes, spotting some of the completed Bernini statues for which we saw the practice models in the Vatican yesterday. On exiting the basilica we saw a couple of Swiss guards (private guards to the Vatican) in their colourful uniforms. We took some photos around the piazza and then feeling a bit weary headed back to the hotel.

We bought takeaway pizza today from another well reviewed local pizzeria (pizzeria del secolo). The pizza was sold by weight so we chose a few different flavours including potato pizza, fresh tomato basil and mozzarella pizza and game and mushroom pizza, which we ate back at the hotel. At around 8 we headed back out to take a few night time photos, first of the basilica where there were bats flying around and secondly at the colesseo. We had an ice cream from the same gelateria we had visited when at the colesseo on Saturday. Arrived back at Termini around 11 stopped in at the supermarket there for a couple of beers only to find they weren't allowed to sell them after 10pm, never mind. Got back to the hotel just after 11. Last day in Rome tomorrow before we travel to Sorrento!

We've got one more week to go before the end of term, and despite losing lots of students and classes now that exams are over, things don't seem to have slowed down much. Dani is doing exam marking again this year which is keeping her busy in the evenings and we're also in the process of buying a house - we exchanged contracts today so the move should be on. I don't think either of us will be entirely convinced until we have the keys, having got burnt on the last one just before exchange. To help with all the stress and well, because Lego is awesome, we bought two new sets this month.

A couple of weeks ago, we bought the Lego London Bus (#10258) which technically isn't released until August. As a VIP member I received an email to let me know they were doing a special early release in their London stores, so we got to the shop just after opening to pick one up. It came with a special limited driving licence - which immediately after seemed to be selling on ebay for £15, so maybe it'll be worth something one day!.

Our newest set is the Lego Carousel (#10257) - its was a pretty epic build although there's a fair bit of repetition with 6 or 12 copies each small build finally culminating in quite an epic structure. I think the best bit is the animals around the side - they move up and down as the carousel turns, its so well engineered! Both sets are amazing and I highly recommend them if you're undecided. I've taken a few pictures to share them with everyone else. I hope you like them as much as me!