We purchased tickets for the Vatican Museum before we left on vacation. We were fortunate that we could walk to the museum from our hotel, although we were of course on the opposite side of the Vatican from where the entrance was.
On advice from a friend who is a seasoned traveler, we chose to go to the museum on the day the Pope held his usual Wednesday audience. As we walked through St. Peter’s Square, they were putting up the barriers to handle the crowds. After spending six hours in the museum, we saw them taking all the barriers down. Because so many visitors were in the square to see the Pope, the museum was uncrowded and delightful.
This visit was required, since the carrot I dangled to DH to get him to fly across the ocean was that he would be able to see the Sistine Chapel. And what a carrot it turned out to be! Having lived in New York and visited Washington DC many times, I’ve spent a lot of time in museums. This was different. I was awestruck. Not only was the artwork enough to make me go “AWWWW”, but the buildings themselves are art. Every room was more beautiful and opulent than the one previous. The photo here is of the ceiling of only one hallway, and it’s just half the hallway. Every single panel is a work of art, and there are hundreds of them.
We did finally see the Sistine Chapel; it was almost anticlimactic to be after the hours spent being overwhelmed by one amazing piece of artwork after another. I guess I was expecting the room itself to be more ornate, but it turns out that when it’s open to visitors it is completely empty other than a few benches along the walls. it makes sense; thousands of people go through every day, and really, we’re just there to see the frescoes.
We capped this day off with dinner at nearby restaurant I found on TripAdvisor. It was a meal we’ll always remember. For one price (at 90 Euros a bit costly, but not ridiculous) we spent three hours learning what a real Italian meal should be. Starting with a glass of prosecco, we then had wine, antipasto (NINE different dishes), pasta (two dishes), meat course (three different types), fruit course, dessert, and coffee. It was all finished up with the waiter bringing us three bottles and telling us it was Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and lemonade. We tried to plead that we were stuffed, but he told us with a big grin that we couldn’t leave until we tried all three. It turned out to be homemade lemoncello, some sort of sweet liquor, and grappa.
As we walked back to our hotel, we looked up the street and could see the dome of St. Peters shining at the end of the street. The perfect end to our time in Rome, and a memory to bring us back one day.
Travels with Billie 