Italy #2

Weather : Cold and wet

Spent today at the Vatican.

Activity one : Climbed to the top of the dome of St Peters. A lift followed by 320 steps up tiny sloping passageways and spiral stair cases untill we were suddenly on a small balcony right at the very top. Unfortunately accompanied by several hundred others including several school groups. View spectacular, architecture amazing.

Activity two : Wandered through St Peters. Very ornate with lots of marble and gold and statues. Accompanied by similar crowds but much more respectful inside the church.

Activity three : Lined up for about 30 minutes for the Vatican museums. These were amazing, full (overfull really) of relics from Ancient Egypt right through to today but mostly ancient Rome and then the Renaissance. There was so much to look at that we could have been there for twice the time and still not seen everything. Unfortunately most of the exhibits are inadequately labelled and many are too far away to be seen in close detail. There were some astounding sculpture and the Egypt section was the best we had seen. The crowds were horrendous with many school groups of disresepctful, loud, pushy children. The highpoint was the Sistine Chapel which was truly wonderous and managed to blow away some of the annoyance we had felt up until then. We spent about half an hour just looking up with a thousand or so of our new friends who constantly ignored the entreaties of the guards to be silent and not to take photos.

We returned to the hotel as light faded and enjoyed a Bombay Sapphire with Schweppes or two before dinner in.