Rome, Italy, Sun 29 Nov 09

A way too early start this morning! We were going to the Vatican museums and were told queues are insane so we were up before 7am. The museums are usually closed Sundays except the last Sunday of the month when they open for free. We were a little worried about how packed it would be on a free day but figured since it was winter it was worth the risk.

We got in the line about 8:30 and the queue was already down the road and around the corner! And it grew longer every minute. It was a very cold morning too which didn't make it any easier. My legs felt like icicles. It got pretty boring standing in the queue too so we had to make up something to keep us entertained. Nick and Will decided the best way was to try and scale the wall to get into the Vatican... as you can see they didn't have much luck ;)

Thankfully once the doors opened at 9:30 the queue moved pretty quickly as people didn't need to pay, even then it still took about half an hour, I don't know what it must be like on normal weekdays.

First we stopped at a terrace with views of St Peters, it was a great place to stop and get some photos, we finally got our first group shot there with all of us. The terrace also looked over some of the Vatican gardens, not sure if they're ever actually used, but they were pretty.

After hanging on the terrace we then checked out the Pinacoteca art gallery which houses famous artwork from Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Perugino (and many others, their paintings were just highlighted in my guide book - I don't really know a lot about famous paintings).

My favourite was Raphael's Transfiguration painting It is quite famous and it was his last. I had never really known of Raphael's paintings (of course I knew who he was but couldn't have picked his paintings out) but after my trip to the Vatican I found I really liked his work.

After that we wondered through some of the other exhibitions and got ourselves thoroughly lost :) There were lots of Egyptian, Greek and Roman artifacts along with various sculpture rooms. In the Egyptian section there was even an uncovered mummy which I found quite gross.

As we made our way closer to the Sistine Chapel the path became practically one way with so many people that all you could do was follow the crowds. It was hard with so many people as I was trying to read my guide book to match up artwork and murals (frescoes) without bumping or tripping over people and it wasn't easy. Some of the artwork in the rooms was beautiful. I really liked the Raphael rooms and his most famous fresco 'The School of Athens' was amazing. There is a picture of it a couple of photos below, it has lots of famous people in it, even a self portrait of Raphael and Michelangelo is in there too. It was fun using my guide book to spot them all.

After the Stanze di Raffaello we made our way into the Sistine Chapel. It was packed inside as you can imagine but the artwork was incredible. You can't take any photos inside as it is a place of worship.

My favourite fresco was The Last Judgment by Michelangelo on the end altar wall. It was amazing, so intricate. You can stare at it forever and find new stories being told. The ceiling frescoes were beautiful too, depicting various stories of the Bible and I had fun trying to work them all out. But your neck gets sore after awhile staring up. It was a breathtaking chapel.

Leaving the chapel it was a very long walk back to the beginning and my feet were so sore! We did a lot of walking in Rome. Once we left the museums we walked back around to Piazza San Pietro, the big open square in front of St Peters Basilica. It was a beautiful space with columns surrounding the square and a pillar in the center. There are two spots in the square where you can stand and the three rows of columns perfectly line up, that was pretty cool.

Another queue to get into the Basilica (security checks) but we were soon admiring one of the most beautiful churches in the world. I saw the Pieta, a statue by Michelangelo, depicting Mary holding Jesus after he was crucified and it's one of the most beautiful pieces of art I've ever seen. The rest of the Church is just as beautiful, with it's huge dome and magnificent artwork.

The high altar is incredible and there is a statue of St Peter whose foot was worn off from pilgrims kissing and touching it over the centuries (it's no longer accessible). We even caught a church service in one of the side chapels. The congregation walked through the church singing hymns before settling in the chapel near where we were standing. We stayed and watched for a little while but it was all in Italian so we didn't stay for the whole thing.

Christy and Will left to walk up the dome but I wasn't feeling well at all (I knew I was coming down with a cold - sore throat, achy body) and knew I wouldn't make it up all those steps so we went down to the crypt and saw the tombs of all the popes including Pope John Paul II who had a special area where people could pray and pay their respects.

We chilled out in the square for awhile before making our way back to the apartment for an afternoon nap. I definitely had a cold,my damn immune deficient body, I've been sick almost every trip we've had this year. Not fun! So we had a pretty quiet night really, sent the boys out to get us takeaways :)