Vacation Day 4: Vatican City

Tuesday: We had a pre-arranged 11am tour of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's with the company Angel Tours. We actually got to sleep in a little. Pat had washed some of his clothes and hung them out to try the night before. I checked on them in the morning, and some items still needed to stay out there. Then as I'm sitting inside I realize that it is raining! I grab the clothes off of the line just before the down pour started. We had a full fledge thunderstorm! It lasted about 2 hours, and was still sprinkling when we left. Fortunately the major rain was done. Unfortunately we didn't leave enough travel time to accommodate the flooding that had happened during the storm. Some streets had 1+ feet of standing water and one of the subway entrances was closed. We got to the meeting place at 11:02, but have not eaten anything yet for the day! For those of you that know me, I HATE to be late. It stresses me out. As it turned out, others were late too, so we grabbed some sandwiches at a nearby stand. We met our guides-and this was the best part: for our group of 18, they had 3 guides. Our tour group consisted of us four and a couple. Yep, six people!! The "quick" line that tours use, was extra long. It took us a bit of time to get in the door. Then, the umbrella the Michael had borrowed from the apartment had to be checked since apparently it could be used as a weapon.
Our first stop was the courtyard. Our guide, Jo, took us over to a picture of the Sistine Chapel paintings. She wanted to discuss the artwork, since there is no talking in the Chapel.

We then walked through a portion of the Vatican Museum. WOW. The amount of statues, paintings, flooring, and other artwork is overwhelming. I was afraid that when I got home I wouldn't be able to tell a wall, from a floor, from a ceiling. I enjoyed the tapestry room and the map room. But, I think my favorite areas were Raphael's rooms. His paintings are amazing. It wasn't until we got home that I realized we didn't get to see the spiral staircase. Oh, well, there is SO much to see, there is no way to see everything in a day.

Nero's bath, Hercules in bronze behind the bath

the map room and incredible ceiling

part of Raphael's painting, School of Athens

We took a short snack break, and had a designated time/place to meet after spending time in the Sistine Chapel. This was probably the most disappointing part of the day. Not sure what I expected, but I got more out the talk in the courtyard. It was crowded, my back was achy (and so was Michael's) so standing and just looking up was tiring. Plus the constant yelling of "silence" followed by shushing by the security, kind of took away from the moment. It was also at this time that I realized we were not going to make our meeting time with our friend, Ernie. After a couple expensive texts, he has reassured us to take our time and finish our tour.

Ernie is waiting for us out there!

makes Kelsey laugh

Following the Chapel we walked over to St. Peter's Basilica This church is incredible beyond words. I wish we had had more time there. We exited through the catacombs, and headed out to St. Peter's square.

Michelangelo's Pietà

alter, built by Bernini

Ernie was waiting at the obelisk. He initially was not supposed to be in town, but got back early. This was our only day to see him. We walked back to the museum entrance to get the umbrella, and then just walked along the Tiber. He took us to the yummiest gelato place. I know we would have never gone there, because the line was out the door. Since Ernie is a local, he took our order, walked right up to his favorite server, ordered in Italian-and we were done! My flavor choices that day were Lemoncello and Champagne. So delicious. We headed back towards our neighborhood-walking. It was getting close to dinner time (our dinner time-early) and Ernie needed to catch a train back to Viterbo. His favorite pizza place ended up being right by where we were staying. Once again, having a local along is so helpful! Too bad this was our last day in Rome. We had yummy pizza at a small, standing only, place.

Did I get a picture of Ernie? NO! But here is the pizza. (bad me) 

Ernie caught his bus, and we went back to pack up our stuff and put the apartment back together.