I woke up super early yet again to walk over to Vatican City and meet my before opening tour group. My sore throat has turned into a flow blown cold, which sucks, but it was a nice day and an easy walk so I dealt with it. Our tour guide was great, and power walked us through the line straight over to the Sistine Chapel. They forbid photos there now, but I probably could have taken 100 of them with just how beautiful that place is (I admit…me and pretty much everyone else in there still snuck a photo or two). Since they cleaned it in the 1980s the colors are so vibrant and lively and light. Michelangelo may have been an asshole but he was one hell of a painter.
After the chapel we made our way through the museums to see the highlight exhibits, including Rafaello’s rooms and some recently opened chambers. Then we made our way to St. Peter’s Basilica and it was starting to get pretty crowded by this point. Honestly I was a little let down by the basilica, for all it touts to be, and despite its size, I’ve seen far more elaborate churches in my travels. That being said, it is HUGE and artifacts are everywhere. You can even go down into the catacombs to see the graves of past Popes and even (supposedly) St. Peter’s tomb. They were doing a little mass off to the side so I sat and watched for a while, then grabbed some souvenirs and caught a couple guards in the original uniforms on alert outside. Then I walked through the main entrance to the city back out to Rome. It was almost 1pm by that point, and my cold really was getting worse, so I decided to grab some ravioli then head back to the hotel for some R&R and to pack for my Thailand flight tomorrow.
