Had a bit of a sore head the next day.
Didn’t get up for breakfast and instead stopped in at Maccas on the way to the Metro station!

Brett and I were going to Vatican City and Karen was going to do a bit of wandering and shopping.

We got there and just followed the crowds of people - it was pretty busy.

Lots of roadside stalls selling bags and sunglasses and watches etc etc etc.
I was looking at some dodgy Gucci handbags - I wanted a red one - I saw one that I liked but wasn’t really in the bargaining mood.

Around the Square (two photos)--------- Porticos

Now the Vatican City - St Peter’s Square is enormous…I really can’t tell you how it felt to be standing there.
I felt tiny.

(two photos) (two photos) Statues lining the roof (two photos)

St Peter’s Basilica is massive too.

Brett and Tanya------ Tanya------ Brett

We were meeting our guide there for the tour - the same company we had been with at the Coliseum.
I had been told by Tamara’s boyfriend that the tour is well worth doing - otherwise you are not really sure what you are looking at.
It was a good idea and was worth the money.

While we were waiting for our guide Brett and I sat in the Square and counted priests and nuns - there were heaps!

Our guide arrived and we had a small group of six which was excellent.
We were able to hear everything that was said and ask a lot of questions.

Rembrandt's last work-- Mosaic floors-- "Scary eyes!"

"Me and a nice bath......would definately fit okay in that!" (two photos)

Our first stop was the Vatican Museum.
There was so much in there.
The paintings and statues and tapestries.

Brett and Tanya with "The Last Supper"

Mum, the tapestries were amazing…there was one of the Last Supper that was stunning!

Our guide explained lots of things to us.
He said that artists didn’t know what the Saints and Disciples looked like so he pointed out to us how you can tell who the painting is of.
St Peter is always holding a key when he has been painted and St Jerome always has a lion near him (apparently he removed a thorn from the foot of the lion who then became his servant and protector).
It was then quite fun to look at the paintings and work out who they were of.

There was so much to see.

There was a statue carved by Michelangelo of Mary holding Jesus after he had died (can’t remember the name sorry) that was in the Vatican.
One day he overheard some people talking about it saying that it was clearly the work of someone else, how wonderful it was and what a great talent this other guy was.
Michelangelo obviously wasn’t happy about this and broke in to where the statue was being held and carved across Mary’s chest over her robes “This statue was carved by Michelangelo of ____” (can’t remember that either!).
It was apparently one of the only works of art he has signed and was apparently quite embarrassed about having done it afterwards but I thought was a funny story.

Anyway that same statue was placed in St Peters Basilica and one day a Norwegian man who had flown in from Australia dressed up as a workman from the Vatican and jumped on top of the statue and started hacking into it with a hammer and chisel calling out “I am Jesus and this is not me!”.
He made quite a mess and people were walking by picking up pieces of the stone and taking off with it.
They finally got the guy off the statue and then when trying to fix it they noticed pieces missing so the Pope said that there would be a box placed in St Peters and would people please return the pieces no questions asked.
They got most of it back and it is still in St Peter’s but housed in glass so no crazy Australian/Norwegians can attack it anymore

We then stopped for lunch in the café…Brett and I had pizza.

Looking from the top of St Peter's Basilica

The guides are not able to “guide” you while in the Sistine Chapel as it would be too noisy in there instead of being a place of reflection so over lunch/coffee our guide showed us books of the paintings in the Chapel and described them all to us - pointed out things and gave us great instruction.
Like Brett said this bloke knows a lot but he seriously is going to be single all his life because he is such a nerd!

The outside and inside (three photos)

Anyway then we went into the Chapel and I honestly got quite teary.
It is one of the most beautiful things that I have seen.
The pictures are magnificent.
It is only quite small but everyone is quiet and kind of in awe of it.
I could have sat there for much longer and when I go back I am going to spend a lot longer there next time.

I rang Mum and Brett rang a friend in the United States.

"Illegal shots!" ----------------- "a great shot"

I also took a couple of shots that you aren’t allowed to do and only one turned out really good.
It is great.

Michelangelo
and it includes a diagram and index to some of the scenes depicted in the painting
(Brett also bought one of these, plus Tanya got a copy for Sharon)

Leonardo - "The Last Supper"
Brett bought a copy of this painting

I did also buy the picture of the ceiling from the nuns outside…Mum is going to frame it for me isn’t she?
We stayed in the Chapel until it closed.

The Vatican gardens------ The Vatican Museum

----------------

(two photos) Overlooking St Peter's Square

Brett and Tanya--- Tanya (two photos)--- Brett

Then we left the tour, they were continuing on to St Peter’s Basilica but Brett and I wanted to climb to the top and we didn’t have a lot of time.
Then there were so many stairs to climb.
Also there wasn’t a whole lot of room.
As we were going up around the dome the wall of the stairs was curved and I had to lean over so you can imagine the sort of squeeze it was for my tall brother!
Once we got to the top the view was amazing.
You could see so far and the photos turned out great.
The outside of the Sistine Chapel isn’t much to look at but the inside certainly more than makes up for it.

--The dome from inside--

--"There was a service on"--

Tanya----------------Brett--

We climbed down and went into the Basilica - we didn’t stay long as both of us were pretty stuffed - it had been a long day.
There was a service on and we had a bit of a look at that but otherwise headed out.

Brett and Tanya - "for Mum"

We saw that the post office was open so we went and posted cards from there…now Mum has one from the post office on Eiffel Tower and one the post office at Vatican City!

We got back to the hostel and met up with Kaz again.
The three of us went to dinner again at the same restaurant.

We were tired and had an early night.
Karen had to get up at 3.30am to make the bus to the airport for her 6.00am flight (which ended up being delayed by six hours!)