A Day at the Vatican

Today was dedicated to waiting in LOTS of lines while visiting the Vatican. First we went to the train station and bought a day-long Metro pass. 4E & we could ride wherever we wanted to go – lots quicker and not nearly as tired at the end of the day! Got a quick sandwich at the train station and took it to eat at the Vatican.

As soon as we got close to the Vatican, we found the lines for the Vatican Museum – they went on for over a mile!

We kept walking past these lines and entered into the open arms of St. Peter’s Square.

While waiting in line to go up to the cathedral, Vicki started talking to a young lady gathering people for tours and we decided to join a group that was forming. Our guide was a quirky young New Zealander named Ryan with a great sense of humor who is an RN by training but has been living and studying in Rome for several years.

If you ever get to Rome, look him up! ;-)

As we went thru the Vatican Museum, we were amazed by the sheer size of the collection. We were on the go for over 5 hours but only saw a small part. The statues and paintings were remarkable!

This box is the burial crypt of a Saint (I forgot which one!) and all the figures on the side were carved from a single piece of granite!

This hall had to be 150M long – the ceiling was completely adorned with paintings and relief sculpture and the walls were covered with maps of the world.

The Sistine Chapel was amazing but since no photography was allowed, I was only able to surreptitiously snap a couple of shots without flash that came out rather blurry! L I’m including them here though so you can get an idea of the beauty of this master work of Michelangelo!

After the Sistine Chapel, we went into St. Peter’s Cathedral where we listened in on Mass. Since it was in Italian, we couldn’t understand one word of it!!

We also just strolled around inside the cathedral – it’s so massive and beautiful that it’s hard to think of it as a church!

Just for giggles, decided I needed to take a shot of what the square looks like from the point of view of one of the big-wigs as they address the crowds!

Finally, here we are saying farewell to St. Peter’s Square.

Then off to the Pizza di Spagna to walk up the Spanish Steps for a great view of the city:

Afterward, we strolled down the Via del Corso and window shopped in all the stores. Finally, it was time for dinner! We’re falling into the Roman schedule rather well – coffee and a croissant with some chocolate for breakfast, out of the house in the morning, a quick lunch on the go, snack around 5PM and dinner at around 8 PM. Tonight it was a small café off Piazza del Popolo – Tagliatelle ai Funghi Porcino (linguini with mushrooms and a crème sauce) for Vicki and Scampi Alla Griglia (grilled shrimp) for me. Another great meal – good thing we’re walking so much or we wouldn’t fit in our clothes at the end of this trip!

Well, going to close for tonight. Time to get ready for our ride to Venice in the morning.

Ciao!