Hi Everyone,
This morning I took a guided tour of the Vatican.
The Vatican museums house 9 miles of art, our guide told us that it would take you 4 years to see everything if you spent one minute looking at each piece.
The tour included the Bramante staircase, which isn't really a staircase because it is sloped instead of stepped, so the Pope could ride his horse to the top.
The tour also included the papal apartments, as Pope Francis lives elsewhere,
and the Sistine Chapel. It's amazing to think it was painted in only four years. They have a strict no-photo policy, so I don't have a picture from the Sistine Chapel.
The final stop on the tour is St. Peter's Basilica. It's massive, the letters around the inside of the Basilica are 9 feet high. And this small sculpture of cupids dwarfs the tour guide.
I would have liked to climb the dome, but the line was massive, and since I'm feeling under the weather, the idea of climbing more than 500 steps to the top of the tallest building in Rome was more than I could handle.
This afternoon I took a Crypts and Catacombs tour. We went to three different churches (on an air conditioned bus, hooray!) and I got to tour the catacombs and the Capuchin bone crypt, which is decorated using the bones of over 3000 Capuchin monks. It wasn't as creepy as I expected, and was really fascinating. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos at any of the sites. I have really enjoyed all the tours I booked through City Wonders; they're the right level of informative, interesting, and fun. If you're going to Italy, I highly recommend booking at least one City Wonders tour.
After the tour I trekked to the outskirts of Rome to see the remains of the Aqueduct. It's pretty impressive that such a large part of it is still standing.
Harold was sad he didn't get a picture with a gladiator in front of the Colosseum yesterday, so I made his day when we stopped by before dinner.
I took some photos of the monuments at night, I probably shouldn't have stayed out so late, but "you will always regret the photo you didn't take". Below is the Colosseum, Vatican/St. Peter's, and Castel St. Angelo.
This morning I took a guided tour of the Vatican.
The Vatican museums house 9 miles of art, our guide told us that it would take you 4 years to see everything if you spent one minute looking at each piece.
The tour included the Bramante staircase, which isn't really a staircase because it is sloped instead of stepped, so the Pope could ride his horse to the top.
The tour also included the papal apartments, as Pope Francis lives elsewhere,
and the Sistine Chapel. It's amazing to think it was painted in only four years. They have a strict no-photo policy, so I don't have a picture from the Sistine Chapel.
The final stop on the tour is St. Peter's Basilica. It's massive, the letters around the inside of the Basilica are 9 feet high. And this small sculpture of cupids dwarfs the tour guide.
I would have liked to climb the dome, but the line was massive, and since I'm feeling under the weather, the idea of climbing more than 500 steps to the top of the tallest building in Rome was more than I could handle.
This afternoon I took a Crypts and Catacombs tour. We went to three different churches (on an air conditioned bus, hooray!) and I got to tour the catacombs and the Capuchin bone crypt, which is decorated using the bones of over 3000 Capuchin monks. It wasn't as creepy as I expected, and was really fascinating. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos at any of the sites. I have really enjoyed all the tours I booked through City Wonders; they're the right level of informative, interesting, and fun. If you're going to Italy, I highly recommend booking at least one City Wonders tour.
After the tour I trekked to the outskirts of Rome to see the remains of the Aqueduct. It's pretty impressive that such a large part of it is still standing.
Harold was sad he didn't get a picture with a gladiator in front of the Colosseum yesterday, so I made his day when we stopped by before dinner.
Comments
Post a Comment