The Vatican

It's impossible to visit Rome for the first time and not see the Vatican. We left the hotel first thing in the morning and arrived just after 8 am. We had decided to book our visit and this turned out to be a great idea. We passed an innumerable line of people on our way in and entered without hitch.

To start with, we entered the Vatican museum. This is a huge building with 30 plus "rooms" all loaded with ancient roman, Christian roman and other artifacts. It took us (with a break for lunch) around 6 hours to see the lot. The highlight of the tour is of course the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo. If not for the mass of people who, it would have been one of the highlights of the trip.



After the Vatican, we opted to line up to enter St Peter's Basilica, the largest cathedral in the world. Absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, the lower tombs were closed, the altar sits above the tomb of St Peter himself.


After we were done with the Vatican, we (Jo) spent the remains of the day shopping as it was our lady full day in Italy.

Thought for the day. If you have to pay to avoid queuing, pay it. It's worth it.


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Location:Rome