Trip to Rome Part IV - The Vatican Museum

The last big thing on our list of things to do in Rome was to go to the Vatican Museum.  We had been past the walls and on St. Peter's Square, so we were familiar with the area and the route.  It was about a 12 minute walk from our hotel to the entrance, so we were set.  We had gone online to buy tickets in advance, so when we arrived, we just went right in.  In fact, there weren't really any lines for non-pay-in-advance folks, so we thought that maybe it was a slow day.

The museum is huge and winding.  All the signs point to the Sistine Chapel right from the beginning, so you think that you will get there soon.  You do not.  You are routed through rooms full of items from Egypt, acquired in the 1840s, full of rooms of sculptures and paintings by the Italian masters, and through rooms and hallways decorated in the most elaborate manner.

Egyptian Hall. It was girls' favorite room, probably because they had a couple of mummies there. 

Egyptian gods

This was a courtyard full of Roman sculptures...

... and stone bathtubs! Our girls are wishing we had one of those!

Most of the items were marked and had descriptions in Italian, English, and German.  Some did not have descriptions in English, but there was so much to see that we usually were okay skipping over some descriptions.

A room with a huge marble table but it was the floor that got our attention: it is a mosaic floor made out of tiny tiles.

One of the ceilings

The had this huge hallway full of these big tapestries, most were made around 1400 AD

A big old map

Courtyard of the Vatican Museums. We walked through all 3 floors all the way around.

The museum winds around on a number of floors.  One of my favorite rooms was the one I spent the most time in: waiting while the girls used the restroom.  The room had been the dining room of one of the popes.  It had been painted by the students of one of the Masters (I want to say Donatello, but it is all just a blur - and WAS just a blur at the time).  The walls and ceiling were just covered in these intricate paintings.  And the only one who enjoyed them was the pope sitting down for his soup.  It was quite a place.

If I am not mistaken this was one of the rooms painted by Rafael.

More of the museum with its crowds.

Stained glass. 

The highlight of the tour was the Sistine chapel.  By the time we got there, it was quite crowded.  It is kept quite dark and no photography is allowed.  The size and detail in the paintings is fascinating.  The thought of spending days and days and days lying on your back with paint dripping on you doesn't really appeal to me, but the finished product is certainly impressive.

After we had finished the tour (in about 3 hours) we stopped and had pizza in the Vatican museum cafeteria.  The prices were as good there as anywhere else around and there was enough space for us to sit down.

Kids playing right outside of the Vatican Museums

We also spent about twenty minutes hanging out in the courtyard outside.  It was a trick to keep the kids from running on the grass, but we managed.  When we left the museum, there were huge lines stretching around the block.  The same was true of St. Peter's Square.  We had gone on Sunday and it was nearly deserted.  On Wednesday it was crowded with huge lines.  Once again we had timed things very well.

A LONG winding line to get into St. Peter's Basilica

We walked from the Vatican to the Castle St. Angelo.  We walked around the outside, but didn't go through the tour - we figured the girls had spent enough time in the museum for the day.  We did walk home and stop for Gelatto at a little shop near our hotel.

Castle St. Angelo

Loving our time in Rome!

Rome has these old drinking fountains everywhere. This one is at St. Peter's Piazza and is one of our favorites.

While walking back to our hotel we came across this tiny little truck - perfect for super narrow streets of Rome!

In the evening we went looking for a new place to eat.  We found a little family-owned cafe  a few blocks from the hotel. The prices were in between the cheaper cafeteria pizza places we had eaten and the restaurant we went to the night before.  We had pasta and other dishes that were enjoyed by everyone.  We ate out on the street under the stars and had a nice time.

At the little family owned cafe.

This is the owner who was serving us. He was super nice and even taught our girls how to eat long pasta properly using a spoon and a fork!

Happy Sophie! Or is it crazy Sophie? Maybe both!

In between the Vatican Museum and our dinner we were at the hotel.  We had an interesting time.  I had a message that I needed to call Travelocity right away.  I did.  It turns out that our flight from Rome had been cancelled.  The representative told us all of the information we knew (that Transaero was ceasing operations, that if they cancelled, we would need to contact them for a refund - through Travelocity - and that they would get back to us within 24-48 hours about a new itinerary. That was a problem since our flight was supposed to be less than 48 hours away.

We told them that we had called them at their request and that we would wait.  We looked at some flights to start to plan for the contingency that we would be stuck.  We decided that we would wait a day to see what would happen before we did anything.  Our trip had just gotten a bit more complicated.