Vatican and the Sistine Chapel

Today started with coffee and Italian hot chocolate at our new favourite cafe "Giselda Forno" around the corner from Hotel Ripa.

From there we walked across the Tiber to Campo di Fiori and wandered the market looking for George's ragno undershirts. Failing in that task, we got some pizza slices for lunch and headed back across the river to Vatican City.

From there things started to unravel a little. I had failed to read the fine print on the skip the line tickets for the Vatican Museum that I had bought online. That meant we spent about 40 minutes in the wrong queue before we were told we had to go to a separate meeting point to collect our tickets. By that time we had missed the start time for our self guided tour. Apparently our only option was to hand over several more Euros and upgrade to the next guided tour in an hours time. That tour started with another 40 minute wait in the skip the line queue.

Anyway, I know I shouldn't grumble. Standing and looking up at the Sistine Chapel ceiling is certainly an experience of a lifetime. We ended by visiting Michelangelo's other masterpiece - the Pieta in San Pietro.

By the time we left the Vatican it was dark and after a few wrong turns our walk home became a bit long and scary. We opted for the comfort of Hotel Ripa again for drinks and dinner before getting an early night ahead of our trip to Florence in the morning.Read more