The Vatican - attempt 1

---

On the advice read online, we thought that a later start would allow the queue at the museum to die off a bit as it is supposed to get a bit shorter after lunch. Wrong!!

But first, the bus broke… one of the rear suspension struts collapsed – probably from the poor road conditions and the crazy Roman bus drivers! Everyone was quite startled when the bus just shut off at one of the stops. The driver gets up and says about three words including “suspenzione” then gets on his phone with no further instructions. All the passengers piled off into the street to wait for the next bus but we decided to walk the rest of the way as it wasn’t much further anyway.

I have been unable to figure out what is happening around Rome that can explain the insane crowds we are encountering. Easter is over now but I suppose people must be hanging around to check out the rest of the city too because when we arrived at the Vatican City walls, the queue for entry to the museum and Sistine Chapel was about a kilometre long – yes really! For those with a map or knowledge of the area, it ran from the museum entrance all the way back to the tram station on the main access road FIVE CITY BLOCKS AWAY! The wait would have been about 4 hours or more and that was just not happening so we went around to St Peter’s Basilica to see what was there. The entire St Peter’s Piazza was closed due to overcrowding so we couldn’t even get inside the collonade let alone the Basilica! We wandered down the road to Castel Sant’Angelo instead which has a park surrounding it and (thankfully) a playground to appease the three-year-old. We took stock of our situation and realised that a very early start tomorrow might be a better bet.

Even the park was pretty crowded and Em tried to get on slide but the older kids on school trips crowded her out. She is learning how to deal with the crowds though and pushed her way through to get a couple of turns.

We returned to St Peter’s piazza an hour or so later and they had re-opened it but the line for the Basilica was more than ¾ the way around the piazza so we called it a day and headed home, determined to try again tomorrow.

Back near our apartment, the local playground was now open so we had a bit of a play before dinner.

---