Vatican City

Day 18
Got up early and breakfasted like the Italians, with Caffè and croissant stood at the counter, before heading over the bridge to see St Peters Square before the thousands descended upon it for the papal audience with Pope Francis.

Having pre booked tickets to the Vatican museum we were able to walk straight in and start what was to become a 3 hour visit with over 8kms of Vatican treasures. It seems wrong that the Catholic Church could acquire such a vast collection of treasures including tapestries, ceramics, statues, and artwork with paintings by masters like Raphael, De Vinchi, Van Gogh, Bacon....but if they didn’t a lot of these would have been lost or damaged over time and definitely not accessible to the general public.

The walls and ceilings were amazing and my neck ached from looking up so much. It was interesting listening to the Americans who were complaining about the time and distance taken to cover their tours and just wanted to see ‘the big church thing’.

Words cannot describe the Sistine Chapel, and it wasn’t possible to take pictures inside, but the frescoes and Michelangelo’s ceiling were amazing, and we were awarded by a prayer and blessing.

The pictures we took do not do it justice.Read more