San Pietro del Vaticano

After a big day yesterday, we expected today to be even bigger. After getting up early, we arrived at the Vatican Museum at 7 am. I had to go drop off my bag and so didn't return until about 8 am. After waiting in line another 2 hours, we finally got into the museum. By this point we were already fucked - especially Stef as she had been standing for an hour longer than me. We had hoped it mightn't be overwhelmingly busy by the time we got in, but we quickly realised this would not be the case. Although the museum was very cool, having to deal with literally hundreds upon hundreds of people, made enjoying it that little bit harder. The magnificence and artistry that goes into every roof, corner, window, and wall is truly unbelievable. Every inch of every wall would justify a photo. Only being able to include 20 in this journal entry is incredibly difficult. I could not believe the total hours that must have gone into the construction. Once again, though, the number of people made getting around and reading the descriptions near impossible, and by the end, Stef and I simply couldn't be bothered to even try and read the descriptions. It may have been the wait in line that pushed us to the edge, but we were drained from the beginning. We persisted and did the whole thing but found ourselves looking for the exit by the end.

Nonetheless, the museum had a special ancient Egypt section at the very beginning, which was of particular interest for me. Given that I won't be making it to Egypt on my trip, it was cool to get some taste for the culture one way or the other. We then made our way to statues and monuments of roman emperors and Greek gods. My interest in both made this a really cool section and gave interesting insight into how they were perceived thousands of years ago. It was amazing to see the stories of Greek mythology retold in statues. Because the Roman and Greek names for certain figures are different, I often wasn't sure of exactly what I was looking at and with the descriptions being difficult to read, I sometimes had to guess a bit. We then made our way through the most impressive section of the whole museum, in my opinion. It included ancient maps of Italy on all the walls, with exceptional pieces of artwork on all of the rooves. It was as though they were crammed in because they had too much beautiful art to include in the museum walls and resorted to filling them into the ceiling however they could. The lighting they had also created the effect of solid gold trimmings around the arts, adding to a godly environment. World can't explain. The video I took I think begins to do some justice to what we witnessed. We then entered rooms with 360-degree murals depicting different wars and events - literally turning a whole room into a single piece of art. The final section was the Cistine Chapel, and although impressive, I was actually not as impressed by this as I was with the previous sections of the museum. I understand it is incredibly old and large, but other than that, I didn't think it was worth continuing to battle the crowds for. Perhaps with a guide, I would have understood the monument more and been more impressed, but the other sections of the museum still outshone it, in my opinion. Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I am wholly glad I did it, but I think it would have been better to go in winter.

To me, the highlight of the day and the trip so far was actually Saint Peter's Basicila. Once again, every mm of space through the whole building was covered by artwork and beauty. But above everything else, the enormity of the building cannot be explained in words. Even in today's age, a building of this size would be a remarkable undertaking, and I struggle to believe it would have anywhere near the beauty. Given it was free, this also added to the appeal for me. It was far more suited to the large number of people - so we could easily move around and take photos without being squished against walls and people. The final part of St. Peter's Basilica was another tour of the dome. Stef was in a rush at this point to get to her flight, so we got to avoid half of the steps by paying an extra 2 euro and use the elevator (10-euro total). This meant we only had 300 instead of 550 steps to conquer. The best part of this was seeing the inside of the Basilica but from the top looking down. A good photo was hard to get through the fence, though, unfortunately. It put into perspective the size, as people looked more like ants from the top. It also gave me an opportunity to see the details of the mosaics that line the walls. When you get up close and see how many tiny pieces of colour make up an enormous roof of art, it blows your mind. Even though it was mostly designed to be seen from far below, they did not shy on the details. But eventually, we made it to the top and got to look over the city. This put into perspective the size of Rome and the number of monolithic buildings they have spread across the city. Each direction you look, you can spot 5 or 6 buildings that stand out as historical and cultural artefacts. We also got to see the gardens that exist within the Vatican. Although I was originally very keen to go through there. Seeing them from above gave you a better idea of what's around anyway. Although it looked cool from above, I think it would be disappointing to walk through as it was mostly just hedges. Stef then had to run to make her train, I had to collect my bag and get to my accommodation, and so the day finally came to an end. It was hard to believe after several incredibly busy days, but I had nothing planned for tomorrow and was very keen to spend it doing nothing.

Although the final fuck around of the day included getting to my hostel, that actually seemed nice, only to be told that there were works going on and I would be required to go to a different "building". I later learnt it was a completely different hostel, but it was much quieter, so I wasn't complaining too much.

I unfortunately could not do the day justice with 20 photos so there will be some things I speak about in the entry that did not make it into the photos - apologies.Lue lisää