We, thankfully, had a late start today as we were both fairly tired and slept in. We had the hotel breakfast and then headed out on the HOHO bus for the Vatican. Having visited the second smallest country in the world a few days ago, today we visited the smallest! Here's a scale model of the entire country.
We arrived as the morning outdoor mass was finishing up, so as we walked toward St Peters, throngs were walking the opposite way. After taking numerous pictures we headed for the Vatican Museum entrance which is on the opposite side of the Vatican. We found our meeting point for our tour and then had a nice Italian lunch.
We had an hour to kill so it was fun to watch all the tour groups arriving, many of which were from cruise ships. Once we were assigned our tour guide, she introduced herself as an art history major interested in geography and architecture. She talked a very long time about the Sistine Chapel, which should have been a clue of what was to come. Once we started into the Vatican Museum we were quite overwhelmed with TMI syndrome - Too Much Information - from our tour guide. After hearing lengthly discussions of each mural in several rooms and being nearly 2 hours into a 3 hour tour that was to cover the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St Peters Basilica, and seeing several other tour groups from the same company leave us in the dust, we turned in our radio receivers and bugged out. Apparently our act was either contagious or she got the message, as shortly thereafter we saw several others from our group without their radio receivers.
We loved having time to gaze at the beauty of the Sistine Chapel. It's a no-photos, no-talking place, yet we saw several people sneaking pictures and the background "buzz" was loud enough that the security people came on the microphone to tell people to BE QUIET! - all to little effect. I found that to be quite disrespectful of the attendees. Distractions aside, just seeing it was quite amazing and made the tour very worthwhile.
St Peter's was amazing as well. They were starting the 5:00 mass as we were there so part of the church was closed off but the beautiful singing resonated through the sanctuary. We could still see Michelangelo's famous Pieta (Mary holding Jesus body) and the famous statue of Peter holding the Keys of the Kingdom among many other statues. The bodies of two Pope's are on display in the Basilica. The body of Pope John XXIII looked quite presentable while the body of the 17th century Pope Innocent XI was definitely showing its age.
After that we went to the HOHO stop, but the 6:00 bus was full. We caught the 6:25 bus and, thankfully, they held the 7:00 (last bus) a few minutes so we could take it back to our hotel near the Coliseum. After stopping for dinner on the way back to the hotel (I did NOT get lost this time!) we are relaxing and enjoying the rest of our evening.
Tomorrow is our tour of the Coliseum!
3 comments:
I've seen some this on Rick Steve's program...its amazing to think that you are there!! See ya in 2 days....the weather may cause you a few bumps as you near DTW, but probably not like the rough seas :) Sylvia
How amazing for you both to see , thanks for the photos Bill . Home soon , Oh No !!!!!
Pat
The Vatican is so impressive. It's hard to comprehend the genius of Michelangelo. The amazing Sistine Chapel and the Pieta are breathtaking. How could someone start with a block of marble and end up with something so beautiful? The David in Florence is just as impressive. All of Italy is one big museum!
Post a Comment