Day 4 - Visiting the Pope

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Today we had a tour of the Vatican organised, so up we got reasonably early and set out on the bus. After getting a little bit lost - you'd think it would be difficult to miss seeing St Peters dome, but somehow we did - we made it to meet up with our tour group.

The same tour guide that we had on wednesday was also one of the guides here, so we were quite happy to join her group again. After a fairly long walk around to the back of the vatican to where the museum entrance is, and another bit of a wait to get the tickets, were were in.

From the very get go the place is amazing. Hardly surprising, given that the Church basically plundered most of the valuable artifacts from around Rome and plonked them in Vatican City. Still, it doesn't take away of from how cool it is. Katherine was great telling us some of the history, particuarly about one of the popes (Innocent IX I think it was) who went around Rome removing all the weiners from the nude statues, or making sculptors put fig leaves on them. Although it does puzzle me that for some reason, a statue having a penis is considered no good, yet having the ball sack still hanging there is OK.

We made our way through some of the rooms towards the Sistine Chapel. We had to wait for a little while before we could get in because it was too crowded. Eventually though we were allowed in.

Nothing really had prepared me for how beautiful it is. I actually got a bit emotional, it really is that good. Very awe inspiring. If I hadn't done anything else during my time in Rome but visit the Sistine, it would still have been worth the journey. There is just something special about it.

The only thing that is really annoying is the crowds of people in there. You're not supposed to talk or take photos in there, yet heaps of people were doing both. It is really disrespectful and is the one thing that blighted the experience. Next time we come to Rome, I will definately be doing everything I can to try and get into the chapel outside the normal hours. Given this is Italy, i'm sure with the right amount of cash, it could be done.

After coming out of the museums, we were taken through the Basilica itself, which is absolutely enormous. It is interesting to see the tombs of the dead popes and that kind of thing - including the morbid way that they display the dead bodies - but really, it is so big that it really loses a lot of its impact.

Finally we finished the tour, and we were really hungry. We fell into a bit of a tourist trap eatery, which was a bit annoying - the food was nice enough, but then several mysterious charges were added to the bill. I started to try and argue the point, but gave up pretty quickly - these guys are professionals at it.

After sending some postcards from the vatican post office, we made our way back to the apartment to rest for a while. After a bit, we went out again to go to the Pantheon, which was fairly interesting, and definately worth seeing.

That was about time to call it a day - quite a busy one.

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