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Published: July 29th 2010
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vatican city Woke up just as Matteo was getting home from work again. This time he was dead tired so it was just Philip and I for the day. Both of us wanted to see the Vatican before he left Rome so we headed over there for the day. Your introduction to the place is St. Peters Square which is pretty mesmerizing. The scale of it alone makes you stop and stare. We had to give up on our plan to start with St. Peters Basilica as the line for it was massive. It even left the square. By the way, does that mean that it left the country back into Italy. Never seen a two country line before. We looked for other options but the Swiss guards had the place locked up pretty well. Went around the side and found the Vatican Museum without a line in sight which was nice.
As I read somewhere the museum has pretty much the richest collection of display items in the world. There is stuff from all over; ancient Egyt, Assyria, Renaissance paintings, contemporary art. Not sure if all the stuff there is rightfully theirs but whatever. They make you wind through a bunch
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swiss guards of different exhibits before you finally get to the Sistine Chapel which was what I was looking forward to most. I think everyone else had the same idea cause the place was absolutely packed. No matter what the signs say it does not feel like a place of worship at all. More like a convention center or something. Its hard to appreciate all the artwork in there with everyone jabbering away and tours coming through left and right. Was pleased to find the pictoral of God and Adam together on the ceiling. The highlight of the chapel was definitely one of the guards who took pride in shutting down the people taking pics which is banned in the chapel. Everyone does it though. He would creep up behind people taking pics, get right up in their ear and then loudly pronounce "NO PHOTO" in a heavy Italian accent. It shocked the people quite a good deal which I appreciated. To anyone trying to film the art on the ceiling he would simply put his hand over the lens and gently push the video camera down. The guy was fantastic. Constantly stalking around the chapel looking for others to harass.
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richest museum in the world Made the long walk back to Matteos apartment and soon set off for the train station for my trip to Naples. Found my hostel in Naples with ease and enjoyed a quiet evening and am currently really really looking forward to a good nights sleep. Been a while since that occured. I have not seen much of the ciity yet but it's as dirty as expected ha. I will leave you with the only 3 quotes I have heard about Naples so far.
"Its more dangerous than most of the places I visited in South America"
"Its like NYC on speed and crack at the same time"
"Its like Africa.....except worse"
Pretty excited.
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