2010 June Home Page


A hot humid 35 today with a few showers thrown in.

Today were are going to do a half day tour of the Vatican. We are due to be picked up at 6.30AM so at 5.30AM it's time to rise and shine. Well 6.30 comes and goes and still no tour bus. 7.00 and still waiting. Finally at 7.30 a bus turns up to collect us. We are then transferred to a larger bus and finally leave about 8AM.

So now we are off to Vatican City. It's a separate country in Italy. We will only see 3 museums today but it really is undescribable about some of the art treasures that we saw and our photos do not do them justice. In some areas no flashes are allowed. We did see The Sistine Chapel, St' Peter's Basillica, The Tapestry Gallery and numerous statues and art works. Definately somewhere to spend more time if you have it. It is truely an amazing and humble place

Our guide was fantastic. We had to follow her around and she had a coloured scarf on a stick. We also had audio headphones that were short range so needed to keep up with her to listen to the commentry. Having prepaid for the tour we did not have to line up, as the general queue was already starting to build even at this early hour. We walked and walked our feet off.

We were back at the Republica Square and decided to have some lunch and a bottle of wine. This cafe is not far from our Hotel where we ended back at 2.30PM. Time for Gai to rest her badly swollen feet as we have an all day Pompeii tour tomorrow. We checked out a few souvenir shops on the way back to the same cafe that we had tea at last night. Another delicious meal and Clive even had desert tonight - a very rare thing.

The evening was extremely humid and airless. It seems hotter than last night but tomorrow is supposed to be cooler. Clive asked for an iron to do some ironing but was told that they are not allowed to give us one due to safety concerns - so no ironing will be done tonight and we'll be wearing wrinkled clothes.





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Mobile souvenir
carts.


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Heading towards
Vatican City.


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The walls
of the City.


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More
ruins.


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Trams also compete
on the roads.


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Clive helps out
the tour lady.

People are
everywhere.

Can you
spot Clive.

Sphere within Sphere
is 4M wide.

The Courtyard
of the Pine Cone.

The tour begins
in the Courtyard.


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It's so
amazing here.


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The Dome of
St Peter's.


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Clive has
some lunch.

Smile
Clive.

Us resting
our feet.


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The Pine
Cone.


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Sphere within
Sphere.


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From another
view point.

Picures from
the Sistine Chapel.

The
Ceiling.

The Last
Judgement.


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The
Dome.


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This cat
was at home.

And
friendly too.


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View of
The Gardens.


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Lots of
Tour Groups.

Smile
Gai.

Dome of
St Peter's.

Inside the
museums.


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The paintings
were beautiful.


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Hanging
tapestry.


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The ceilings are
really amazing.


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The Last
Judgement.


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The Sistine
Chapel.


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It's down
more stairs.

Leads to the
Pope's quarters.


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It had started
to rain.


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Heading to
St Peter's Square.


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The
Obelisk.

Spot the
Pope's window.


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Inside St
Peter's.


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This door
is sealed.


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This Pope
lies in State.


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Steps down to
St Peter's tomb.


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There was so much
to see here.


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A Mass
in progress.


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A Swiss
Guard.

Several Guards
on Duty.


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140 3M high Saints
are all the top.


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In the centre of the Square.
Note you can only see the inside column.

Saint
Peter's.


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Back in
Italy again.


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Vatican
walls.


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Some crazy
parking.

And some
more.


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Another
fountain.

Another
Basilica.

Republic
Square.


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Wonder what this
Hotel would be like ?.


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In
Italian.

Which one is
my scooter ?.