Vatican City and Surrounds

Rob in front of the Vatican
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We decided that we needed to scale back on some of our expenses since we have pretty much blown our daily budget every single day in Italy so far.  A tough decision was made - to miss out on the Vatican Museum (with the Sistine Chapel) since it costs €13 just to get in and another €20-30 per person for a proper tour.  We will have to come back to Rome in a few years and do it properly - but it seemed pointless to spend that much money to effectively just rush down the endless corridors of the world's largest art museum mainly to see the Sistine Chapel - to do it justice really requires at least a full day for the museum.

Denise in front of St Peter's
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Instead we decided to make the most of St. Peter's Basilica and the surrounding areas.  A quick Metro ride to the Octavius station and then a short walk later we were at the gates of St Peter's!  It is so big it actually seems small (strange to hear but true if you have seen it - the scale is so immense your eyes can't quite take it all in at once) - the size of two football fields end on end.  We passed through the security checks and the famous Swiss Guards and then into the Basilica (free of charge but NO shorts or bare shoulders - ladies beware!).  We were very fortunate to join a free English tour (where we actually met up with a family who we had met on our boatride to Capri - small world!) which was superb and very entertaining.  Saw The Pieta, and all the major sights inside (including gold Latin lettering on the dome that seems minute from below but is actually 4.4m high per letter!  We also joined the masses to rub the foot of St. Peter (worn down by the generations of devotees) and Bernini's 160 ton bronze altar canopy.  Interesting notes - none of the 'paintings' are actually painted - they are mosaic copies because the originals were being damaged by incense smoke (they were all moved to Vatican Museum); there is a memorial to a Pope in which the sculptor (the first Lutheran commissioned to create work for the Basilica) actually carved his own face instead of the Pope's (he was miffed about being told he was not allowed to sign his work); and another in which the statue of Truth is squashing Protestant England on a globe, but her toe is lifted to spare Catholic Ireland! We tried to climb the cupola but the length of the lines at around noon was just crazy so we decided to come back a little later.

Sightseeing in the Smallest Country in the World

The Swiss Guards of the Vatican
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Exiting St. Peter's we stopped briefly to buy a rosary for one of my South African colleagues (hope it arrives Ok Leliana!) and then walked to the banks of the River Tiber to the Castle St. Angelo (as featured in Dan Brown's Angels and Demons).  Entrance was free using our second Roma Pass entry so we picked up an audio guide (Note to future travellers: pick up a cheap audio splitter for your iPod or other MP3 player and take two sets of earphones - almost all Audio Guides have a slot for hearing aides and using this you can pay for one but have two using the splitter!)  The castle was originally the tomb of the Emperor Hadrian but was built up by the Popes as a major defensive installation for them to use with the Papal Court in times of grave danger (linked to Vatican City via a series of tunnels).  The castle gets its name from the large statue of Archangel Michael on the top - erected with a chapel by the grateful Romans when the angel allegedly appeared during an outbreak of plague, sheathed his sword, and ended the outbreak.

View of Piazza San Pietro from the top of St Peter's Basilica
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After the castle we walked back to St. Peter's - and the lines had vanished! Lesson to be learned - wait until later in the afternoon to try the climb (we were there at 16:00).  After paying the €4 entry each (its slightly more if you use the elevator) we climbed the 550 steps to the top of the Basilica - REALLY worth the fee and the climb - the views (both inside the Basilica looking down and of the Roman skyline) are breathtaking!  After a few more pics outside St. Peter's we walked along the Tiber to the Jewish Ghetto (Trastavere) - a very colourful and bohemian quarter of the city.  Really tired we found a local trattoria and ordered the two set menus (one meat, the other fish) - for €13+15 including the red and white house wines.  We met a very cool guy from Argentina (welcome to the Blog Gustavo - thanks for the offer of accommodation on our next trip to South America) and had a long chat about travel, South America, and his memories of earlier trips to Rome.  The restaurant service was shockingly poor - so much so that our waiter, when I came back a few minutes after we left to use the bathroom, wanted to chase me away since only paying customers can use the facilities! Denise almost killed herself laughing!

St Peter's cuppola at sunset
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Long day - but great fun and some amazing experiences.