Rome

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Started early with a visit to the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. The Vatican is a state all on its own. It sits on around 45 hectares and has its own currency etc, even tho it's in the middle of Rome. It is the smallest state or principality in the world.

The Sistine Chapel is where Michael Angelo's famous paintings are. Interestingly he did not like painting, he preferred sculpture. So in a bit of rebellion, he painted nudes and someone else covered them up because he refused and in one painting, he painted a portrait of himself just to let the emperor know he was not happy. So most of the paintings were done by Michael Angelo and later Raphael. There is a sculpture of the two of them above the doorway leading into the Vatican. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the Sistine chapel but I do have some that I took from a board. Simply amazing the work and detail, very talented artists.

In the Vatican museum, they have one long room / hallway where there are noting but massive maps of Italy all painted. The ceiling also has paintings but they are in 3D, they look like they are sculptures.

We then went into the largest church in the world, St Peters. This is massive, words can't describe it, the opulence, the workmanship, mind blowing the work that has gone into this. We walked into St Peters square, right beside where the Pope does his thing. ( he was tucked up in his apartment, he doesn't like living in the big Pope palace, he is very humble and does is own grocery shopping and cooks and cleans for himself)

Next we visited the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. One word "massive". The colosseum is in such ruins because the Romans took all the marble to build churches. One note - the only reason a lot of the old architecture is still standing is because they have been turned into churches. There are shit loads of them.

So, back to the colosseum, the marble floor is gone, not because it caved in, but because it was marble, it was nicked. They are slowly rebuilding it, some parts have been finished, but loads to go. It took 8 years initially to build and that was incredibly fast for 2000 years ago, many slaves died.

Across the road is the Roman Forum, where only some of the structures are still standing. This is at the back of Caesars Palace.

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