Long day of a lot of walkkng and many stairs. It was worth the money to get in early to Sistine Chapel. There were not hoards of people there when we got there at about 8:30 a.m. We had been given a brief description of the paintings in the Sistine on our way there by our 25-year veteran tour guide, Françesca. We had radios and headsets to listen to only her. So many throngs of people. Parts of the museum were missed on our way there, so we tried to backtrack after Sistine. We saw some and missed others.
We decided we were done with the museums and wanted to try and see the Basilica while we were so close, only Mikes knees were very sore and his left heel even more so. But he perseviered to the end. He actually knodded off once when we had a chance to sit and get him another dose of ibuprofen--what a miracle drug that is!!!We circled back to the Sistine Chapel to try and go out of there to the Basilica. The other option would bave been many more minutes of walking. Many, MANY more minutes.
This time in the Sistine Chapel, there were people wall-to wall!! What a contrast from when we came in earlier with the smaller groups. It was much more quiet then, and much less noisy and now it was so busy and irreverent. We did get to tag along with a group and made our way to the Basilica. Much of the Basilica is cordoned off and not accessible, as in close around the canopy and altar, and around the Pieta. But it was still nice to be able to see it.
I didnt get to go up in the dome, but that's okay. The crowd control is such that we (as in The Masses of PEOPLE) go in one way and out another. We did get to sit in the chapel of the sacraments or somewhere just so Mike could rest his feet and knees. He was really suffering from all the walking and all the stairs by this point. It was all Mike could do to hobble back to our hotel room. He really didn't expect to be so crippled on this trip. That's not supposed to happen until hes's 80, he told me. But it is now. We had a big lunch late in the day at a cafe. I had spaghetti bolognaise (very rich and tasty!) Mike had some of the same kind of pizza as we had before. No dessert this time, as we had chocolate wafers back in our room--which we are not supposed to eat in! Ha! We eat lots in our room. Mike had tummy troubles that night and afternoon, maybe due to the amount of drugs be took for pain...which didnt even do the trick this particular day.
Lots to see, and our air conditioning is still not fixed. It was about 82 degrees F that night in our room, even leaving the window open! And I think it cools down nicely in the evening here.
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| Beginning of our vatican museum tour. Many photos to follow.... |
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| Some rooms in the Raphael wing had some major renovations going on. |
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| There are no photos allowed in the Sistine Chapel at all. We just looked, and bought a book about it later. Mike and I enjoyed our early visit in there. He noted the mosaic floors of marble, remembering that one lf HIS tole setters back in the day had told him that his family had been doing tile since tne Sistine Chapel was built. Thats a long legacy of family tile setters. |
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| This place is so big a football field could stand on end in here and not touch the top! |
1 comment:
Wow! Lots of chairs outside!
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