Vatican Museum
VATICAN MUSEUM
March 30, 2022
Today is my birthday! I didn't plan it this way, but what better way to celebrate your birthday than to visit the Vatican. I knew it was going to be a shit day. We are definitely set in our ways and I would like to bore you with my anticipation of the day. For one we were at a time crunch. Usually I like to relax on a travel day, but today we decided to do the Vatican and go to the airport to fly out. Two, or Due as the Italians say, I had to wake Michelle up early and checkout of the hotel before we went to the Vatican. Three, rain was forecast for the entire day.
I wake Michelle up early around 8am. She was not too happy that she had to wake up early, however it was my birthday so I think she changed her mood quickly. We got packed. I hate rushing to get packed. I should have packed last night, but I was so tired from the Colosseum that I lacked energy.
We went downstairs to checkout. The receptionist was really nice and I asked him if we could leave our bags and come back since we are going to the Vatican. After the receptionist stored our bags I immediately saw that it was raining. I knew it! But you know me I forgot to pack an umbrella. I do it all the time on normal days, but when we travel I seem to forget. In hindsight I should have ask the receptionist if they had an extra umbrella, hotels usually have this amenity.
We left in the pouring rain to the bus. Just our luck, out of the 6 buses that pass through this popular stop, only one went to the Vatican, so we had to wait for that one. I think it was the 492. The ride to the Vatican was about 20 minutes. That part went smoothly.
At this point it was around 10:15am. We were 30 minutes early for our Vatican tour. I checked in. The man gave me a purple sticker as we would join the purple group. The one thing about these tour companies is that they schedule multiple tours at the same time making it very difficult to organize. I think they could have done a better job, but it was so unorganized that people didn't know where to go. Some people belonged to the white group and some to the blue group. What blue group? What about us? At 10:45 am I asked the guy, did our group leave? He said no I gave you the wrong sticker! Fast forward, now it was 11:00 am, they were still organizing the groups. Fucking shit show if I saw any. I can honestly say it wasn't the workers fault. There is something wrong with their organization system.
The first part of the tour was about the Roman sculptures. These sculptures were made out of marble and featured Rome's most famous emperors. After the sculptures were the Rotundas. In one of the Rotundas was the Emperor Nero's bathtub. The thing was huge, it was as big as a swimming pool. The next couple of exhibits were grand but uneventful until we got to Rafael's Rooms.
There were 4 rooms. The first and last one featured paintings by other artist, but Rafael's paintings were features in the 2nd and 3rd rooms. The 3rd room featured Rafael's two most famous paintings The School of Athens and Disputations of the Holy Sacrament. Both paintings were like murals on the wall and both were gems. Watch the video as I go into the basics of the School of Athens.
After Rafael's Rooms was the Sistine Chapel. Upon entering, we couldn't take pictures or video. But you know I snuck my gopro and got in trouble. Two of Michaelangelo's most famous paintings were in this room. One of the Creation of Adam and the second was the Last Judgement. I didn't get a chance to enjoy the room as it was overcrowded and I wanted to take video with my gopro. I turned my gopro on, but got scolded by one of the guards, so I just left.
Going out was more corridors and artwork until I reached the garden. I lost Michelle somehow and just waited in the garden texting her. After we exchanged communication, I figured she was outside so I went through more artwork and exited.
Since the tour took a while, we needed to rush because we needed to catch a plane. We caught the bus back to the hotel and retrieved our suitcase and left. We were very efficient and out to Rome Termini in 30 minutes. We bought a train ticket to the airport and tried to look for the platform. Shit, we couldn't find it. After resetting our mind, we looked at the ticket and found the platform number.
Well that's it, Rome in the books. It was a basic sightseeing tour of tourist stuff. Italy offers quite a bit and to explore this country would need multiple trips.