Vatican in Record Time

I'm in Rome at the moment. I should mention that I used to come here quite frequently while my grandfather lived here, but he moved to Toronto when I was about 14, so my practical knowledge of the city is nil. My first re-impression of the city was that it was really dirty, and that the infrastructure was falling completely into disrepair. Well, that continues to be true, but you really just forget it all the longer you stay here. Rome is such an amazing city, as much of a tourist trap as it has become. As I walked back to my hostel with my friend, we passed a building that was raised OVER a series of ruins. It was rather surreal.

Oh, and to explain the title of this post, our time from lining up at the Vatican to getting through the ticket collector was 8 minutes. I'm going to guess that's close to a record. That's through security, up to the ticket booth, and through the ticket-checker. We rock.