Day 4
We had another lazy start to our day. Today was Vatican day. We took the metro over and fortunately it wasn't quite as busy as our first attempt. It was a quick walk from the metro station to Vatican City, as everything looks far on the map but is far closer than it looks. Along the way we passed a ton of people offering tours that let you skip the lines. And boy were the lines long. And the tour groups got first priority into the Vatican museum.
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| Ceiling in the map room |
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| Mosaic floors in Vatican Museum |
Instead of waiting for a few hours at each place we picked a guide and lucked out with the tour leaving right away. We got to walk past the gigantic line of people who were waiting. It was a good moment. The Vatican museum puts the Louvre to shame a bit. Our tour was really just the guide pointing out pieces on the way through the museum on the way to the Sistine Chapel. Which was a special journey. There were so many other groups and people everywhere. I do truly think that the vast majority visit the museum to see the chapel. So everyone is really just fighting through to go the same direction while tour groups stop to look at a few things along the way. It did make for some impressive bottlenecks in some areas. But the guide did point out many interesting things, and it was a little better than just fighting through to see the Sistine Chapel and then join another line to see the Basilica. Also, the guide books all told me it was at least a half hour walk from the entrance to the chapel, why not see a few things on the way! And the part of museums like the Vatican and Louvre is that the building itself is something to look at. As lovely as the Sistine Chapel is, I loved the room before it. I called it the map room because all the walls were covered in paintings of maps of places in Italy and the world. And the ceiling went on farther than you could see covered in paintings. I figured if the map room was that amazing then the chapel would be even better. Not so much for me. But I was happy to have seen it.
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| St. Peter's Basilica |
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Our front of Basilica, the seats for the
mass audience, there were thousands
of chairs |
Our tour also meant that we got to take a shortcut into St. Peter's Basilica and miss the giant lineup there. Now that place is far bigger than I realized. It has so many alcoves and offshoots. I was amazed at how ornate everything was, including the gold ceilings and such. We had thoughts about climbing the done. But the lineup had us double think that. It was huge, as they all were in the Vatican. And the climb involved an elevator ride, 365 steps up, including areas where you have to crouch down to fit. All to get a view at the top. Which I'm sure would have been great because nothing is allowed to be taller than the dome of St. Peter's but we passed and went on to do other things instead.
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View of Rome and Vatican from
Castel Sant'Angelo |
Right outside of Vatican City is Castel Sant'Angelo. There wasn't really much else to do in Vatican City so we toured the Castle instead. It was an old fortress for the popes. We saw quite a bit of it, but not as much as I had hoped or in any sort of order that made sense. We did get lost a lot, because this place was a maze. And they didn't hand out any sort of map. So I hope that we saw the highlights at least! And to make us feel better about not climbing the dome, there were some amazing city views of Rome from the roof of the Castle.
After all this excitement we decided that perhaps we should make it an early night as we had an early train to Pisa in the morning. We did however find the highly recommended gelateria Gelarmony. It was good, but not spectacularly good. I had read in the books to find places that claim it's handmade when you pick a location. But really, the gelato in Rome was all pretty good. Even the places that weren't in the guide books!
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