Rome day three

Today was the Vatican tour. As we had already sorted out where it was we would meet our tour guide it was with military precision that we got back to the underground and walked the short distance to the meeting point. Angelo was there to meet us and our 3 and a half our tour began.
We are so glad we booked this in advance as it was a hot day and the que spiraling around the Vatican wall was already 1 and a half hours long even at this time in the morning (9:15am).
The Vatican is a separate city of 110 acres within Rome. It has it’s own laws, currency, police, army of 110 soldiers and the people who work with in it pay no tax’s. You go through customs to get in with scanners but you do not need your passport. It was so busy inside with wall to wall people but Angelo our guide quickly got us on our way with ear phones in to hear his amazingly interesting commentary.
The Popes garage was huge with all the elaborate coaches that had been used by Popes on special parades or for visiting wealthy people. The white bullet proof Jeep that you often see him in on TV can only travel at 6km’s per hr.
The art work and sculptures that are just every where are totally overwhelming in there quantity and quality. It is truly a site to behold and no photo could ever really do any of it justice.
The Sistine Chapel was started in 1508 by Michael Angelo who then spent the rest of his life from his 40’s painting at the request of the Pope. Other painters where Raphael who also spend a lot of his life painting but died young.
St Peters Basilica is cob smacking in it’s size. It is so big that you loose concept of size. If you look at the pictures you will see writing about a third of the way up the walls inside the dome. These letters are 2.8 meters high but only look small in the vastness of this place. This is the biggest church in the world and no other church is allowed to be built bigger.
At the end of our tour we walked to catch a bus back but on the way stopped for a pizza and a gelato (ice-cream) which are so creamy and yummy.
So what do we think of Rome? Well it has to be seen to be believed. It’s very busy and noisy with people & cars. What does a crossing & a green or red light mean – well nothing a far as we could tell. Some streets we saw had litter & the smoke butts have to be seen to be believed especially at the tracks where we waited for the train to take us back to the airport. Otherwise the history & buildings were amazing & definitely need to be seen but we wouldn’t want to live there.