Vatican City

Day two in Rome; we're up bright and early (before 6 local time) to make it to the Vatican and attempt to beat as much of the massive number of people as possible. A willingness to sign up for the first tour of the day meant we were already ahead of a huge portion of the 25,000 + daily visitors. Just like Versailles a few years ago, we also got very lucky. This time it was rain that kept the crowds low (or at least made them late). We arrived at St. I Peter's Square to see almost no one. Only a few early birds waiting in line for tickets had beat us; but thanks to Lauren's work as always, we did not have to wait in line as we had a tour. We even had time to stop at McDonald's for a brief breakfast and were the first ones there.













Our tour started with the Vatican Museum which is very much like the Louvre; stolen artifacts wall to wall and too big to actually see it all. Our tour guide was great and really hit the highlights, allowing us to skip much of the repetitive stuff. We were able to tour the papal apartments that were painted by Rafael; which were among his first large works and because the Sisteen Chapel was being done at the same time; shows how he learned from Michelangelo from one work to the next.








Of course no tour of the Vatican is really complete without the Sisteen Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. There are no pictures allowed in the Sisteen Chapel; runout amongst the tour guides is that this is because Kodak paid for the revitalization (which is true) and they do not want to share the image rights. Either way images are allowed in the Basilica and both are too magnificent to describe in a blog post. However I will say that the Basilica is so tall that the letters you see going around the upper section are over 9 feet tall; and seem small from the ground.














- Jordan
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Location:Via della Scala,Rome,Italy