The Vatican and Walking Tour of Rome

Saturday morning we got up and took the metro out to the Vatican. We again got hit up by about 15 people in 5 minutes time to pay 20 Euro extra per person for guided tours of the Vatican. One gal actually had the nerve to tell me "You came all the way here for a once in a life time experience and you aren't going to do a tour?". Again she had to be in her early 20's and didn't have any experience being a parent with two small children...don't patronize me honey!!!

The Vatican was super busy and since we didn't do the tour we bought a guide book for 10 Euro, but it was the most confusing book ever that none of us could really following and understand where we were at. We did have an advantage for having our stroller though because we got to go into the Sistine Chapel first and through the non-congested way.
I honestly have to say that the Sistine Chapel wasn't what I thought it was going to be. It is absolutely amazing and I'm glad we really saw it first because I heard the rest of the building can almost spoil it for you with how amazing all the paintings are. I thought the room would be much bigger but with the thousand people who were in the room with me and the hum of everyone talking and the guards all yelling "Silencio" the whole time it seemed very small. We did take time to go through each of the panels to figure out what each of them portrayed. My favorite was the "The Final Judgement" painting which took up the whole wall on the end (first picture above). It took Michaelagelo over 5 years to paint this controversial painting.

He had a lot of nudity in it and the current Pope in his time didn't think it was appropriate so Michaelagelo's apprentice saved the painting but "covering" up some of the people so it wasn't so risqué. When the painting was restored the "covering" up was removed to show more of the

original works.

After the Sistine Chapel we thought we would make our way up the the Raphael Rooms to see the other must sees and we ran into this. Thousands of people jammed into a hallway of amazing maps and tapestries that you would like to have some time and space to enjoy but it's very difficult especially when you have a stroller. We visited with one of the security guards that helped us with the lift up to the second floor and he said 15-20K come through each day and it's so hard for them to do their jobs properly when everyone just blends together.

The works of art that are just painted on the

walls and ceilings of this place are so amazing, but I don't think anyone can really get a true appreciation for them when you are packed in like sardines whether you are in a tour or not. I snapped a bunch of pictures so I could try to enjoy them when I got out amongst the free.

We finally made our way outside to get a great view of the Vatican's courtyard but were now ready to find some lunch and make our way to St. Peter's Square. The guards told us that the fastest way to get there was actually to go back into the Sistine Chapel and there is an exit right off of that room to the square. We weren't adventurous enough to fight the crowds again so we opted to head back out the front door and walk around. We were all so hungry and just wanted to get away from all the people that we didn't get to find the Vatican post office...darn it!

By the time we got outside there wasn't the 25 minute queue that we had to stand in out front. It actually looked like this was the best time to come in and see the Vatican. At this time of the day we saw later was that the queue for St. Peter's Basilica was well over an hour's wait to get inside it. We grabbed a quick sandwich lunch and ate just outside the Vatican.


One thing that we found very nice all over Rome was the water fountains that they had all over the place. We saw our first one in the Roman Forum just outside the Colosseum and a gal told us that they were safe to drink from and all over the city. If you had a bottle to use all day, you wouldn't have to buy any water while you visited the city. It wasn't super cold in terms of our standards, but it was very thirst quenching.

We were all about creating "profile pics" for Facebook so this is me shooting off the peace signs in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Just behind me are hundreds of chairs and a covered table set up where the Pope himself does mass.

Addison enjoyed getting sprayed by the fountain in the middle of St. Peter's square. She also loved getting to pose with her Daddy.

Our little family is a pretty amazing place. You can see the end of the queue behind us to the right for people trying to get into the Basilica which looped all the way around the circle to the straight behind us. Kevin would have really like to have gone inside, but we just couldn't wait in a line like that.

We tried making our way back towards Trevi Fountain via the metro but there was a breakdown in the line between us and all the way back to our B&B so after "trying" to communicate with the metro ticketing people and "trying" to get on a city bus and getting pushed out of the way for 7 different busses our little group decided to walk back to the B&B and see what we could see along the way. It actually turned out great because we saw a lot of really cool stuff. Lots of little cars in Rome and the really little ones park like this in the tiny spots between regular sized cars.

Saint Angels Castle in Rome was built by Emporer Hadrian as a tomb for him and his family back in 130AD. It has since been used as a fortress, prison, barracks and a museum. The bridge just next to it over the Tiber River is lined with angel statues.

Palazzo Nuovo is an amazing square filled with fountains and artists and entertainers.

The Pantheon

Cute "little" cars

We stopped to get some fruit for snacking on later on. The peaches and plums were the size of grapefruit and the bananas were as long as my wrist to my elbow...must have been pretty good fruit because 4 pieces cost me 6 Euro.