Day 4 - Vatican City

The day started early as we were to meet at a cafe a block away from the Vatican at 7:15. Turned out Jon, our tour guide com Tuesday got the Burton bunch assigned to him again. We were let into the Vatican at 8 am and were able to view the Sistine chapel with only about 100 people in there (when we came through later there were thousands squished in there!). Jon had given us information about what we were going to see before entering because there is no talking in the chapel. It was spectacular ... Especially when you could see the sections they left unrestored.   Got a bit of a laugh as the guards were constantly shushing people ... Made me think of my friend Sue K.  - this could be here job after retiring from being teacher/librarian. She'd be great at this!

As we toured the museums I was so thankful that I was on a tour rather than doing this on my own. Jon efficiently moved us from place to place and filled us in on the key items. I think I would have been done after the first room if he hadn't.  The part that really made an impression on me were the ceilings. All were just painted, but they were so realistic that you'd swear they were 3D.  Alex mentioned that she thought the wooden carved ceiling in the Borgia's apartments was a highlight for her. I haven't watched any of the tv show about the Borgias, but sure sounded like there was a lot of drama. 

Into the bascillica we went and literally had your breath taken away. What you see in pictures or on tv doesn't prepare you for it's size, opulence and perfection. The architects use of perspective were so impressive. 

Our last stop was climbing to the top of the dome. We opted for the elevator ride to the roof so we only had 370 stairs to climb rather than 540 steps. It was a good call. There were some pretty narrow sections as I was really glad I wasn't much bigger .... The passage ways where you had to lean over to pass through we're .... Interesting. The views from the top of the tour were truly spectacular. Sure glad my cousin suggested this as we might have passed on it otherwise. 

After close to 5 hours here we were very ready to find a place to sit down and get a bite to eat. As we left we saw the lineup of people waiting to get tickets. I just can't imagine doing that and so thankful that we had once again opted to spend the $$ to get an awesome tour.