Blogs from Vatican City, Europe - page 13

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Europe » Vatican City September 5th 2006

Because we had heard about the nasty queues at the Vatican, we decided to arrive bright and early on a weekday. Outside the Vatican, we noticed an extremely horrible line for the Vatican Museum and decided that if we had to choose what we saw of the Vatican because of time constraints it would be St. Peter’s Basilica. And as it turns out this was unfortunately the case. We really do not know what we can say about the Vatican other than that we were extremely overwhelmed by it. The architecture and the detail of the entire place were just very impressive. And it is also great to be able to see the heart of the Catholic Church. It is overwhelming to think about that being the place where the Popes are chosen, where they live ... read more
The St. Peter’s Dome from the terrace on the Basilica
St Peter’s Basilica
The Amazingly detailed St. Peter’s Dome Roof

Europe » Vatican City » Vatican City August 16th 2006

Oh yes... Vatican! This visit meant a lot to us because of the Pope - John Paul II. We really wanted to see his tomb, he was such a wonderful Man ... and he was Polish! Anyway, we got up very early as wanted to get to Vatican asap (one day out of a week in Rome). Our faces became cheerful the minute we entered Vatican City ! What we saw was absolutely amazing. Actually before we didn't realise how big St. Peter's Square was! When you see it on the TV it seems quite tiny... The queue to the Apostolic Palace was unbelievably long and at the beginning we felt like we were never going to see the official residence of the Pope. Surprisingly it was moving fast, so it took us only about 15 ... read more
view from the Copula
Swiss guards
Vatican

Europe » Vatican City July 27th 2006

We went to see St Peters not to long back and there was one thing I found. It was a lovely building and all that but they would not let you in. The Vatican and St Peters I really wanted to see the Sistine chapel but hey maybe another day. ... read more

Europe » Vatican City July 16th 2006

Well we made it through Florence which was sorta boring. Unless u like a 18 foot high statue with his balls out (sorry Michalangelo). But Rome has been real sweet. Our hostel is within walking distance of everything. We went and checked the Vatican city and St Peters ballsica, Pizza Venezia, Palantine Hill, The Colleseum, The Pantheon, and a bunch of other crazy stuff. Everything is rediculously old. Love it. But the city is basically shut down completely on Sundays so we just realxed today. Went and Saw the Pope do his big speech thing. Sorta wild. The tourists havent bothered me that much here because ive been to busy gawking at the crazy old buildings. Florence on the other hand i was ready to snap. So We re off to Naples in the morning to ... read more
D langelos castle
Pizza Venezia
Rome

Europe » Vatican City July 15th 2006

Due to the nature of today's activities, today's wake up call came at 5.30am and we left our hotel at 7.15am for the Vatican museum, sistine chapel and St. Peter's square and bassilica. We were amazed to find thousands of people queing outside the vatican museum so early in the morning and even though we were in a group, we did not enter the museum until after 9am. We would hate to think how long you would have to que entering via the individual que instead of the que for groups. It really pays to do a tour for this very reason. The vaticum museum was amazing. Beautiful tapestry's, mosaic's, ancient roman statue's and paintings lined the walls. We spent many hours admiring it all under the direction of our tour guide, who was very enthusiastic, ... read more

Europe » Vatican City June 29th 2006

As if the regular Italian breakfast wasn't bad enough, our otherwise wonderful hotel didn't have a breakfast room that could accomodate our group. We had to walk two blocks to a tiny strip mall. The empty lots we passed were chock full of empty bottles, cardboard boxes, dog crap and waist high weeds. The breakfast stop was actually a Chinese restaurant trying to make a few extra bucks by catering to tour groups in the morning. The orange juice came straight out of a carton which actually made it the best we had had so far on the trip. The dry cereal came in tiny individual boxes. To eat the cereal you had to use a plastic Chinese scoop/spoon. There were no rolls, cheese or meat. So basically I walked through a garbage dump for a ... read more
The Arch of Titus
The tourists arrive
Inside the Coliseum

Europe » Vatican City June 28th 2006

My blog has moved to http://www.myspace.com/stine72. ... read more

Europe » Vatican City June 24th 2006

We spent two days in Rome, really a day and a half. Got there on the 21st in the afternoon. Our hostel was a horrible subway/busride to the outskirts of the city so I haven't written since then. Too much to see and didn't want to waste the time trying to find an internet cafe. We stayed at a camping village where we had a tiny little trailer to ourselves. The place was row after row of self contained trailers, but it did have a pool. The first night we went into the city at 9 pm to look around and promptly got ourselves lost in Rome!!...I still don't know what the name of the monumental building we got dropped off at is called but we got a picture of it!! Rome has the worst mass ... read more
don't i look just like david?
st. peters
tomb of michealangelo!

Europe » Vatican City June 14th 2006

It was an early rising this morning to go and see the Pope. Kate met us on our street and we stood in the security line to get into the Vatican City. It is well equiped with metal detectors and all! We were so early that we acctually got seats for the big event, as well as one and a half hrs to kill in the blazing sunshine. We found many means of entertainment though, from the group with newspaper sun hats to what I called the ''Secret Service", who were men dressed in black suits and sunglasses keeping the place secure. Hey Cathy, it reminded me of your security guy song in Luxembourg! I even took a picture of the secret agent guy up in the statues, but apparently not descreetly enough because he waved! ... read more




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