October 6: Vatican City

October 6 Vatican City

We chose to take a tour of Vatican City with a tour group and it's a good thing we did. Upon arriving at the Vatican the first thing I saw was a very long line...there must have been 1,000 people in line to get in. One of the best things about going on an organized tour is that you get to skip the lineup. The other good thing is that since it is impossible to see everything in one day, a tour guide is able to point out the best of the best. It would take years to see everything.

We learned a lot about Michaelangelo and his work in the Sistene Chapel. For example, Michaelangelo was not a painter, he was a sculptor and in fact, he did not like to paint. However, the pope ordered hime to paint the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel. Michealangelo finished the project in three years. He had an intense dislike of the pope who was mean and cruel to him. He managed to get subtle revenge by putting double meanings in his paintings. The pope, for example did not like women. Michaelangelo thought women superior to men and so one of his paintings in the Sistene Chapel depicts god with his arm around a women, symbolizing the superiority of women.

In the Sistene Chapel, one must be very quiet and no pictures are allowed to be taken. The room was literally full of people, perhaps over 2,000 of us trying to be quiet. Needless to say, the Chapel monitors were constantly announcing, in several languages, "Shhhhhhhh, silence, please be quiet, No Photos!" That in itself was entertaining. The Chapel is an amazing work of art and worth the feeling, as Michelle says, of "being in an eel pot."

The Vatican Museums contain some of the most important and impressive art works in all the world. The Museums are enormous and cover an area of 5.5 hectares. It is impossible to know what to photograph because it is all so impressive. Again, however, we were in an "eel pot" and grateful to be with a tour guide.

St. Peter's Basilica is gigantic....it can hold 60,000 people. We overheard a woman behind us say, "It's very popeish" and that's about how I felt. It is very opulant, extravagant and full of statues of popes...and beautiful.

After the tour we walked away from St. Peter's Square, found a place to eat, rest our feet and breathe air that we didn't have to share with thousands of others.

After lunch we looked at the map and decided to see one more thing in Rome...the famed Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trivi). It took us about two hours to get there as we took a couple of wrong turns. However, walking in Rome is itself an experience. Crosswalk lights are very short and when you consider the "eel pot" of people who want to cross it is somewhat intimidating when the walk light turns red and the cars and scooters all move without even giving those in the crosswalk a second thought.

After taking a couple of pictures at the fountain we headed for the nearest Metro stop and ended up back at the campsite at around 5pm. It was very warm so we sat out and admired our towels drying on the fence.

Rome was fun but it is now time to leave the big city behind. I'm not sure when we will get online again. Tomorrow we head further south and hope to find more sunshine and fewer people.