Blogs from Vatican City, Vatican City, Europe
The drinking team with a traveling problem
Published: May 24th 2012Europe » Vatican City » Vatican City
May 24th 2012
These days are starting to all blur together. It was strange how dead the bar was last night but I guess the locals don't party too hard on a Wednesday. I talked to mom yesterday for the first time in a while. Gave her a massive Internet hug. love ya mom. I will never take for granted how there are no gypsys in Canada. Literally everywhere. All selling the same shit. Like, no I don't want your cheap ass Louis Vuitton purse and stop calling me playboy! Remember I said I did laundry at 2 in the morning the other night? Well I had a bit of a scare. I didn't grab my clothes because this girl from our tour said she would hold onto them for me. Well it turns out she only had my ... read more
May 19th 2012
Ciao! Sorry we skipped a day, as you'll see, friday was quite an eventful day... It was our last day in Paris. We started the day at the Arc de Triumphe and then walked down the Champs Elysees. It was gorgeous and super cool, considering all that has happened there. We went through the Place della Concorde and saw the obelisk, where Marie Antoinette and others lost their heads. We also met a few pickpockets, but outwitted them all! We finally came to the louvre, where we planned to spend our last few peaceful hours. Right. At the desk, we were informed that our pre-ordered tickets needed to be picked up back at Champs Elysees, so Sophie and Dad raced back over to pick them up. We finally were able to enter, but our visit was ... read more
Rome in Three Days Part 2 - Vatican City
Published: March 31st 2012Europe » Vatican City » Vatican City
March 30th 2012
Well, actually Vatican City is not in Rome. It is a tiny nation itself. But we still consider it part of our visit to Rome. We met our tour guide, Alex Mariotti, outside the Ottaviano San Pietro Metro station at about 1:15pm. David didn't show up, but we liked Alex better. By 2pm we were ready to start our tour, complete with headsets, inside the Vatican Museum. Alex was a fantastic tour guide and story teller. He told the story of Michaelangelo and how he came about to paint the Cappella Sistina. He told us how Michaelangelo was not a painter, but a sculpter, and shared the story of his relationships with the Pope, other artists and his life. After all of that, of course, Michaelangelo was a great artist. By the time we had reached ... read more
July 21st 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011 I spent the sntire day in Vatican City. There was a two hour quick tour of the museum, which rivals the Luvre and the British Museum in size and collection. A long lunch contemplating bad caffeteria food and taking airborne tablets to avoid the onset of a cold. Then the Basilica and a real Catholic mass. I just did whatever the nuns did. ... read more
July 5th 2010
So the plan for Monday was to check out the Castel Sant'Angelo, hit up the Mausoleum of Augustus, and see where I went from there. I had forgotten the cardinal rule of tourism in Europe. Almost _nothing_ is open Mondays. And the Castel was not the exception to the rule. And the mausoleum? Undergoing extensive restoration work and completely inaccessible. Not even a good photo opp. So I caved. I found a tour group that would take me through the Vatican museum to the Sistine Chapel, and while we'd have to wait in queues, they were much shorter cues than the poor suckers doing it on their own. I wasn't going to do the museum because it was so bloody crowded (designed for 5-10k visitors per day, they're seeing roughly 30k/day in peak periods). And it ... read more
Day 42 and 43: Inside the Vatican, Barely
Published: July 12th 2010Europe » Vatican City » Vatican City
June 13th 2010
June 10 and 11, 2010. Geographically and from a traveler's perspective, the Vatican City has always been a part of Rome, but thanks to the 1929 Lateran Treaty, this tiny enclave within the Italian capital became the world's smallest sovereign state. The Vatican City has its own postal stamp, its own radio station, and an army of Swiss guards. But unless you're keenly aware of your geography, you won't be aware that once you left the Tiber River's east bank, you have technically stepped into a different country. It's no big deal actually, although for those counting their countries, it's one more tick off the checklist. The Vatican City may be the world's smallest nation but it's definitely no pushover. The UN has granted it a permanent observer status in the UN, while the Pope isn't ... read more
April 9th 2010
For our last day in Rome, we had planned to see the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. By the time Allison and I got there, the lines were absolutely insane (as expected, I suppose), so we just decided to take pictures of the Vatican from the outside before getting in the enormous line for the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. Despite the mass amounts of people telling us that it was a 3 hours line and trying to sell us super expensive tickets to cut to the front, we waited it out and were moving pretty quickly. We made friends with the Canadians standing by us in line, and after about a half hour of waiting, Mackenzie and Michael popped out of nowhere tapping us on the shoulders! It was fabulous to re-unite with a ... read more
March 22nd 2010
22 March - Monday We woke about 9:30 am to another nice day...so much for the 10-day forecast with rain every day. Our new room was located on the fifth floor away from any road or alley so the only noise to disturb us was the birds...cackling in this case. Will heard from his friend that we wouldn't be able to get tickets for the Vatican until the afternoon. I was puzzled about this, as I was not aware from any guidebook that there were limits on the number of tickets...wait in line and you get a ticket. Nevertheless, we decided to take a taxi to the Villa Borghese and then walked from there to the Piazza del Popolo, after which we would go to the Vatican to get tickets. The Borghese Gardens were ok, but ... read more
EL VATICANO - Lo más cercano que he estado a ser un santo ha!
Published: March 19th 2010Europe » Vatican City » Vatican City
March 19th 2010
En medio de Roma y con completa independencia se encuentra el Vaticano. Lo que es considerado como algo aparte de Italia no se puede desmarcar de lo que lo rodea, Roma y su arquitectura. La Basílica de San Pedro ocupa casi todo el territorio de este micro estado europeo y este palacio cobró preponderante importancia cuando lo visité, ya que en el año 2000 fue cede principal del juvilleo de jovenes. Una vez dentro de este palacio que es la basílica de San Pedro me di cuenta que todo el oro ocupado para la fabricación de la cúpula y las paredes internas es necesario para demostrar la grandeza que las creencias de quienes creen y todo comentario contra la exageración de los materiales usados está demás, ya que desde el punto de vista del arte, y ... read more
