Day 20- Roma

Day 20- 4 September 2008 Today we headed to the Vatican City for a visit to the Pope. Unfortunately tea and biscuits were called off as he was on holiday else where. So we decided to inspect St Pauls Basilica which is an impressive and very large church approx 110 metres in length. There are many popes (in glass coffins) visible which is quite strange. We then headed to the tombs of the popes which lie underneath the church and saw the resting places of many of the popes (including John Paul 11. After a line that took us over 30 minutes to get through we headed up a lift and then we were in the top of michaelangelos dome with magnificent views of both the dome and its paintings and of the tiny sized people in the body of the church. After another harrowing 320 steps we reached the top of the outside of the dome which had spectacular views around Rome (and very very high up). After a long walk down we enjoyed gelati on the top of St Pauls basilica and then headed down and around the corner of Vatican city to the Vatican museums. There was no line which was great and after security and the ticket office we made our way around the 55 hectres of the museum which takes in some amazing sculptures, art work and brilliantly painted walls, floors and ceilings including many mosaics. Obviously the climax of this after a few hours (and the constant following of signs) is the famous Sistine chapel with its frescoes by michaelangelo on the barrel ceiling and the last judgment at one end of the chapel. I was surprised by the plainness of the chapel (apart from michaelangelos work of course) and found that many of the other rooms in the museum equally spectacular. That is not to say that it was not as expected nor a marvelous piece of art that we stand the test of time, i just expected that the chapel would have more things in it than just hoards of people. After this we headed back to St Peters square for a lasting look of the giant square and could easily imagine 100,000s of people at mass hearing the pope from the balcony at St Peters. Well another fantastic and amazing day in Roma and we head to Naples tomorrow by train. Ciao