Up earlier today to set off to St Peter's Square, so that we can organise to get into St Peter's with hopefully a shorter queue.
On our way from the metro to the square we decided to stop and talk to one of the official tour organisers. I am not really into this as I do not wan to be ripped off, however after a very long chat, we are convinced that this will be value.
This tour is actually of the Vatican Museum, then into the Sistine Chapel. The entry into St Peter's is free and is totally separate, I was not aware of this as I thought that the Sistine Chapel was also a standalone building and separate entry, so this worked out better for us.
The tour with guide covers an overview as well as a preamble of what we will be seeing.Very thorough indeed. All in the group have an earpiece, so the tour guide Floriana does not need to speak loudly and we don't need to gather closely around her so that we can hear her commentary and of course not disrupt anyone else. To get to the Sistine Chapel you need to do the Vatican Tour, or at least pay for it and then traverse the maze which is the museum to the Sistine Chapel. Then we should be able to get directly into St Peter's Basilica.
Well what can I say, the Vatican Museum is fantastic and of course so is the Sistine Chapel. There are so many artworks, sculptures, paintings on walls & ceilings, quite breathtaking.
Entrance to the Vatican Museum
The Museum was firstly a collection of sculptures commenced by Pope Julius II in the 1500's. The popes were among the first who opened the art collections of their palaces to the public thus promoting art history and culture. The Vatican Museums are a complex of different pontifical museums and galleries that began under Popes Clement XIV and Pius VI.
One of the hallways that interconnect the various galleries in the museum
The whole tour takes over two hours ending in the Sistine Chapel. No photos are allowed to be taken in the Sistine Chapel, but most would have seen photos and videos over the years of the ceiling, and if nothing else is remembered Michaelangelo's painting of the last judgement most certainly would be, seeing the chapel in person was fantastic. Unfortunately, we are unable to get a shortcut into St Peter's Basilica., as the Pope had an audience at that time, this meant that we now need to exit the museum and queue for entrance into St Peter's.
The queue was moving very fast when we got back the the square, and it only took about 30 to 40 minutes to get to the head of the queue and past the screening checkpoint.
The interior of St Peter's is fantastic as you would imagine or have seen on TV. We spent close to two hours exploring the Basilica including the crypts.
This was taken from just under the balcony on which the Pope stands when he addresses the crowd in St Peter's Square
Thursday - our last day in Rome
Awoke at about 4AM as there was very loud thunder in the vicinity. Appears as though the forecasts are correct.
The storm moved closer and by about 7:40 it was overhead. Lots of lightning now and the lights in our room kept dimming so I guess that the backup systems were working well. The storm was intense and kept for some time. Easing to showers about mid morning.
This put paid to any thoughts of heading into town for the morning, so took our time over breakfast and packing. Headed to the airport in a airport transfer that we had booked yesterday, now what a good idea that was considering how bad the weather is, however we had booked for 12 noon, and we heard reports that the travel time could be over two hours. Fortunately, the trip took about 55 minutes, so our luck was holding.
On time trip to Zurich, where we were met by our friend Mark. Some shopping on the way home for food for the evening meal as well as refreshments (beer and wine of course).
The evening meal was something very swiss - Raclette. What the hell is raclette. I guess these can be described as a kind of melted cheese delicacy to which you add vegetables and meat to your choice (bacon, aubergine, etc).
Raclette machine
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