Perhaps we were overtired, but we were quite entertained by the hotel's very old-fashioned, tiny lift.
Tom decided to make use of teeny weeny hotel bathroom sink to do a bit of sock washing the next morning.
Our time in Rome that first morning was to be short lived. We were booked to go on a tour to the Vatican, which is a different state.
We enjoyed walking past the crowds that were already forming at 8:30 in the morning to enter the Vatican museum (where Tom was extremely upset to find that the guards insisted he check in his bag).
We mucked around a little bit. Sorry Mr Pope.
And then we entered the museum. This statue is supposed to indicate some message associated with fertility. Can’t imagine why.
This one characteristically has his bits modestly covered by a purpose-built vine leaf.
The long corridors are littered with beautiful mosaics. This one is exceptionally valuable. That blue sky colour is made up of a semi-precious stone. I think maybe Lapis Lazuli, but don’t quote me on it.
Obviously that ceiling is in a little danger of falling apart – thus the net.
This ceiling, although it appears to be made with carved stone or plaster, is actually entirely painted. Pretty impressive technique, huh?
We then went through a corridor full of ancient tapestries.
They were enormous.
And of course the ceilings were insanely ornate.
This statue and I had a minor disagreement. I didn’t like his ringlets.
Here’s a beautifully painted map of italy, a possible idea for a future feature wall perhaps?
And here’s one of Venice. Since we’d just come from there, we thought it was a nice touch.
I particularly liked this lion on an extreeeemely old tapestry.
Yet another fabulous ceiling.
The view from one of the windows.
We then made our way out of the museum and into the Sisteen Chapel, but no photos allowed in there I’m afraid.
The exit corridor alone was pretty spectacular.
And here’s the baptismal font (I think).
Yet another amazing statue.
Then we reached the entrance St Peter’s Basillica. Again, the ceiling was incredible.
This is the extremely fancy special door that is apparently only open every 25 years. The other side of it is actually concreted in, to prevent it being opened until the appropriate time.
Here we are inside the massive building.
Which had so many statues that I couldn’t possibly show you pictures of them all.
Tom liked this one. This statue was in honour of one of the popes who was apparently the person to identify that our year was supposed to be 365 days, 6 hours long to be accurate, so introduced the leap year to make up for the difference.
Hardly anything was actually painted inside the basilica. Most “paintings” were actually mosaics. Meaning they don’t fade over time. Amazing.
Once we exited the basilica we had the pleasure of seeing the Vatican guards in their extremely colourful uniforms.
Apparently by tradition, they have to be Swiss. No-one really knows why.
We then crossed the square and admired the view.
Our pleasure in the view may have been greater if we’d managed to retrieve our sunglasses from Tom’s confiscated bag at the museum entrance. Here we are squinting in the very very very bright sunlight.
It was about this moment when I inquired of our guide when we’d be able to collect Tom’s bag from security at the museum, since I was beginning to doubt whether or not the tour would go in a full circle.
He stared at me for a moment and then demanded that we return our headphones. Then he pointed us toward where the museum was (on the other side of the Vatican complex – which I can melodramatically claim is the other side of the state!) and told us to go and get it.
Hoping that we could be back quickly enough to rejoin the tour, we ran. In the sun. With no sunglasses. Tom got the bag back, we returned to the spot that the guide said they would be, and nothing. Nobody there.
Hmmph!
We found ourselves the nearest water dispenser to recoup our energy.
And then decided to console ourselves by finding lunch.
The restaurants in the streets surrounding the Vatican are certainly a little pricier than those we usually try to find, but we were hungry and disgruntled. And I can happily say that that gnocchi was the best I’ve ever had.
They even brought more fresh basil leaves for Tom’s pizza on request. They did actually bring more than this, Tom just snapped them up so quickly I could only get a photo of the last one.
Told you, best gnocchi ever.
So that was our Vatican experience. The buildings were spectacular. Our tour guide? Not so much.
Never mind. We decided to make the most of the fact that we were on the opposite side of the city to our hotel and see the sights over there for the rest of the day. More on that to come!
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