Vatican City

Vatican City (It's own country within Rome)

5.01.2012 – Thursday, day 17

Unreal! Now, I’m not the most spiritual person in the world, and I can confess that I have never actually voluntarily been to a church service in my entire life… BUT the Vatican Museums & the Sistine Chapel may have given me a new perspective on it all.

We pre-booked our history lesson through Viator Tours, and wow was it worth it. It is unbelievable how much these tour guides know about every detail… every painting, every canvas, every hallway, every room and everything in it! Our tour guide could recall every single little detail on what we were seeing… even to the point of why Michelangelo was featured as an outcast in one of Raphael’s paintings, the only one in clothes and boots (making a joke of him of course because they hated each other!). (Now you too have had a quick history lesson!)

This tour took just over three hours but is packed with so much quality information and we now feel that we know Rome and it’s history so much better. Did I mention that we skipped the three hour queue too! That in itself is worth paying extra for!

After this, we walked around St Peters Square, took a bus around town towards our hotel and stopped for a bite to eat and a much needed rest. The most important part of the day is next… SHOPPING!

We visited the main shopping precinct on Via del Corso but unfortunately walked away with nothing much except for a Vodafone Internet Card and a small Italian leather handbag. So unfortunately no new jeans for Adam which means his trusty and now holy pair are going to have to last a bit longer!!

Whilst we were out shopping we bumped into the Trinita ei Monti and the Piazza del Popolo, which has crossed a few more things off our list of things to do. Oh, and last night we went to the Trevi Fountain and had dinner there which is amazingly beautiful at night all lit up! Tomorrow we will give our feet a break and jump on board one of the bus tours (again) and on Saturday (our last day) we are hoping to do a day trip out somewhere.. Cortina? Ostia Antica? Along the coast? Not really sure.. If you have any suggestions let us know.

Ciao for now.

The Dome at Vatican City

Adam out the front of St Peters Bisilia

The view from Trinita ei Monti.. the staircase was packed full of people

Me at Trinita ei Monti... I "borrowed' the roses for the photo! (too tight to actually pay for them!)

The Trevi Fountain at night... I can't take credit for this pictures it's a postcard! There were too many people jumping in the way of our photos... damn tourists! ;-)