Cruisin’ Greece, Day 3, 7/3/26 Out & About in Rome

Up earlyish this morning and off to the Vatican Museum

We had tickets for a ‘skip the line, early entry’ tour. So we got to skip the line for the people waiting to purchase tickets…and use the equally long line next to it. Fortunately our line was held up only by security so it moved more quickly.
But this was the first lesson of the day. Just because it says ‘skip the line’ and ‘early entry’ doesn’t mean that everyone else in the world hasn’t made the same choice. So once we got started our whole tour was no different from any other tour of such places – hundreds of people moving thru the gallaries listening to dozens of guides speaking a little too loud into poorly placed microphones.

Actually I was underwhelmed by the whole experience. In addition to the issue with so many people it’s obvious that this is the standard tour the every museum visitor gets, starting outside with views of the grounds and St. Peter’s dome (Our guide was very impressed by the dome. He drew our attention to it every time it was seen – even in reflection.).

We spent half an hour out there – including a lecture on the Sistine Chapel; then walked thru the hall of statues, stopping occasionally to try to understand what he was saying about a particular item (His heavy accent coupled with the general crowd noise made him significantly difficult to understand. Cheryl even confirms this.) I’ve never seen so many marble heads in one place.

At the end of the hall it was back outside for more statues;

Then it was into the hall of tapestries (which were beautiful. It would have been nice to take more time to appreciate them).

Then it was on to the hall of maps – gigantic beautiful maps that we didn’t have time to appreciate.

Along the way I was able to forcus on ‘the borders’ – the incidental (and amazingly beautiful) art above and below us.

Then we walked into a room and turned around and the whole venture became worth it.

Other luminaries shown include Plato and Aristotle (in the center) as well as Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, Ptolemy, and Heraclitus (or possibly Michelangelo who was painting the Sistine chapel as Raphael was painting this).

Next time I will also spend time with the fresco on the opposite wall. I just had time to snap a photo as we were leaving the room and it looks interesting.

Along the way we saw a couple of works by noteworthy artists.

Then it was on to the Sistine Chapel. They don’t allow photos but it was as spectacular as they say. We spent some time noting the features our guide had described and the group moved on to the end of the tour.

The tour ended in the portico of St. Peter’s. The guide talked some about the cathedral and then turned us lose to enter and marvel. We started by viewing Michelangelo’s Pieta and then Cheryl sat while I wandered this massive space.

There were lots of Pope tombs and a line to go downstairs to see St. Peter’s tomb so I let them all rest in peace and we left…

Heading out toward the taxi stand we stopped for lunch at a creperie.

Then it was back to the apartment to await the arrival of the Hunts.
They moved in and got settled and the afternoon was designated as R & R time so we spent a quiet afternoon reading, gaming, napping, and blogging.

Brian found a great little Italian restaurant not far off the beaten path and we enjoyed an early dinner before our evening activity.

We met Kristian, our driver/guide…

And took off on a Golf Cart tour of the city.

It was a great tour! Kristian was intelligent and funny and he related well to all of us. He hit the main sites you’d want included and also some places you would never think to go, but be glad you did. He made a few changes along the way to enhance the experience and when Brian announced that the kids were done, we stopped briefly at the Trevi Fountain and then ended the tour. This was definitely the high point of our Roman adventure.

So that’s Friday.
Tomorrow, Saturday, we get serious about challenging the heat and walking the ancient pathways.

Till then…
Ciao