Another beautiful sunny and hot day. It was a "sleep-in-get-rid-of-jet-lag" start to our day. Our plan was to do a tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. As we walked toward the Vatican there were all kinds of people on the sidewalks promoting their tours. We chose one and headed to our destination. There were over 40 people with our guide. How does one describe the art in this phenomenal museum? So numerous were the statues and carvings. I still don't understand why they are so huge. There was one made of metal. It looked to be 25 ft tall! I found the room of Tapestries so very interesting. It took 1 year to do one square meter of the tapestry. Each one filled a whole wall. The colours in them were so vibrant and rich looking. They were so beautiful. We were told there are 9 miles of art to explore in the museum. We saw only a fraction of it.
As we approached the Sistine Chapel we were told "no pictures and to "be silent". It is a sacred place. It was awesome. The paintings were amazing to see. And if it got a little noisy in the room there would be this "shhhhhhhhhhhh" sound and a guard would say "silence".
There was so much to see it was overwhelming. After our tour we took the elevator to the roof of St Peter's. What an amazing view and the statues at the top look so huge! We did not take the 300+ stairs to go to the very top of the copula. So we visited the gift shop.
We then went to tour St Peter's Basilica. It was breath-taking! The grandeur is beyond words. There was a huge statue of St Peter, first pope, and people were lined up to touch the foot of it so I took my turn.I also prayed for all my family and friends before the tomb of Pope John Paul II.
As we left the Vatican a young man approached Michael and gave him a coupon for free Bruschetta if we'd eat at his restaurant. We followed him and had a delicious meal there outside. We were on a little side street where about 25 outside cafe's lined both sides of the street. It's so neat to see different streets.
I forgot to mention that at some point of our busy day we did make room for more gelato. It's so yummy.
Along the streets there are many people selling their wares ---- purses, sunglasses etc. are displayed on cloths on the sidewalks and there's a reason for this. If one of them spots the police he warns the others and they quickly swoop up their stuff in the cloth and hide. Apparently it is illegal for them to be selling. It's quite comical to see. when the coast is clear they "set up shop" again.
Rome is an interesting place.
A note to the ladies reading this....... ladies in Rome wear either dresses or skirts and tops and they wear amazing shoes...... from fashionable sandals to stilettos. Being built close to the ground like myself I notice the great shoes. But it puzzles me how they walk on the cobblestone!
Here's to the end of another fun day in Rome.
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