Day 67: Vatican City

There is no shortage of pictures this day! I got up quite early, in part due to a girl in my room who's alarm went off at 5:00, 5:10, 5:20 etc etc. I'm not sure why she neither got up nor turned it off, but I can only assume she did not know the difference between snooze and off. I have no idea at what time she actually got up, as I was already gone. I took the overcrowded but cheap metro to near St. Peter's Square and walked the remaining distance through a tangle of beggars trying to show off their piety and the usual street vendors trying to sell knockoff handbags and keychains.

I had been warned that the line to get into St. Peter's Basilica was long, and it was, but it moved quickly and I was through in 20 minutes. I had the foresight to respect their no-shorts policy, but even though the signs said people would be turned back if they didn't meet the sacred site's rules I saw many people with shorts within. The Basilica was quite impressive for it's numerous sculptures and for the architecture and ceiling art. The most famous sculpture in it is Michelangelo's Pieta, but all of it looked great.

Next was the cupola of the basilica. You can either take an elevator up, or climb the 551 stairs. Luckily for me the cost was based on convenience and not fun! The stairs started off as wide, sloped steps and it was a pretty leisurely climb. Then they changed to conventional steps, the conventional spiral steps. Then the walls started to slope inward so that you have to twist your body on an angle a bit to get up, and finally there is a tight, steep spiral staircase. It didn't take very long at all, and from the top I finally got the view of the city that I've been promising.

Also, just for the sake of of awesome - Pontifical Swiss Guards!

See, that's 80% of my photos and I haven't even gotten to the Vatican Museum yet. They allowed photos in everything except the Sistine Chapel, but I've been finding there isn't too much point in taking photos of artwork that is all over the internet. Mostly I just took pictures of things that are really famous, really impressive, or things that are neither of those but that has some element that interests me - for practicing my drawing, for example.

A few rooms of the museum were closed, but there was ample to keep me occupied for a solid 4 hours or so. The hall of maps was neat for its uniqueness, and there was a small sculpture room with all the muses that I enjoyed a lot. Overall it was a good mix of sculpture, paintings, architecture, jewellry, furniture, pottery, wall hangings, and other artsy things. The art in the Sistine Chapel was amazing of course, but the large crowds and lack of respect for the no noise policy took away from it.

I took the long way home, heading south of Vatican City and then east to the Trastevere area of Rome before eventually working my way back up to the north-east where my hostel is. Doing all this included covering the 6th of the 7 hills of Rome, so I'll see if I can squeeze the last one into my explorations tomorrow. No real plans for my last day other than what I mentioned before, but I think I'll spend much of it in the southern part again as I liked what I saw walking through there today.