Rome (Day 3), Italy

We got the first transfer into the train station at 8am leaving Aims and Jake in bed, they planned to head into town later that day. Our bus driver must have dreamt of being an Italian F1 driver as a child cause we managed to do the 10km drive from camp to the station in about 4 mins....and we were driving a mini bus!
We jumped on the train and were in Rome city by 9am. We walked straight to St. Peters Basilica hoping that the game plan may help us avoid too much of a que. The line wasn’t too bad and after about 30 mins we were inside. It was quite an amazing sight to see especially considering how long ago it had been built. We wandered around inside for a good hour amazed by the works of art on the walls, ceilings and floors. We then found the La Pieta by Michelangelo that he carved at the age of 24. It is the only artwork he ever signed and did so as other artists of the time were claiming it to be theirs. You can see Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made it) on the sash running across Mary's breast.
After that we left the Basilica area and went down into the Pope’s burial chamber. This section really took no time at all and the only Pope that was getting attention was Pope John Paul II.
It was then time to scale to new heights and climb to the top of the Basilica dome. We took the elevator up the first 200 or so steps but still had another 350 to climb after that. If any one is claustrophobic, doesn’t like heights and doesn’t feels like loosing 3 kgs from sweat i wouldn’t recommend this....but if you can over come these things then it is very much worth it. Once we reached the top of the rather small, slight angled steps we were met with an amazing view over the top of Rome. You could see the entire city and the hills in the distance. You could even see the Coliseum not to far off. We stood for as long as we could bare the over crowded platform and then headed back down.

We walked from the Basilica around the to the Vatican Museum. This took you through many rooms of amazing artwork, sculptures, tapestry’s and artwork on the walls and ceilings. The museum snakes you though about 12 different rooms and corridors before it takes you to what everyone is waiting to see....the Sistine Chapel....WOW! It’s hard to believe what you see when you walk in and it’s even harder to know what to look at as there is so much to see. There was a big sign as you entered saying no photos but once we got into the Chapel everyone was taking pics so i thought “WHEN IN ROME”!. I got some pretty good ones i think.
We stood in awe and amazement for about 15 mins, and after getting a nice saw neck it was time to get moving and see the rest of Rome.
Jo like most of the population had just read Angels and Demons so we had marked out the main places in Rome that appeared in the book. We went to Church of Santa Maria del Popolo » EARTH, Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria » FIRE, Piazza Navona Four Rivers Fountain » WATER We managed to find everything we were looking for, even the statue of the Ecstasy of St. Teresa
l.
We had seen nearly everything Rome had to offer and i am sure that there is so much more but for now that was enough. We headed back to camp to get packed up and ready to leave Sarsha for a few weeks.

Aims and Jake had had some issues with the washing machine at the campsite and didn’t get into Rome city till 2.30pm. As it was quite late they did not get a chance to do Vatican city so also did a Angels and Demons tour of Rome (Jake is also into the book). They will do Vatican city and the rest of Rome once we get back from Greece as we have 1 day extra they can use to see everything.