Tuesday, January 1, 2013

28th December

Today we had tickets for the Vatican museum and decided to get there via the Metro as the hotel is 2 minutes from the train station. Buying the tickets was more of a challenge than we expected as they were available from the newspaper stand and not the ticket machine, but a couple of friendly Italians pointed us in the right direction and we made it to the meeting place on some steps opposite the Vatican in plenty of time to meet the tour guide. The queue for normal people was maybe 2 to 3 hours long but I had purchased 'skip the queue' tickets to get us in, it still took 20 minutes to get in, there were security checks like you get in airports as you change country, before you could get through to the exhibits. Once through we wandered for two hours before making a break for the exit through the Sisteen Chapel. People had packed in to look at the paintings which seemed to be the highlight of the visit, mine was finding a map with St. Helena marked on it!
By now we wanted lunch, so a convenient Chineese filled the gap then round the corner to St. Peter's  square and the Basilica. There was a queue here as well and as the Basilica is free we decided to move on after a few camera shots. We carried on to see the Castel Sant Angelo, where we wandered round the outside and then onto the metro and off again at Spagna to see the Trinita del Monti, the famous set of stairs that was crowded with sightseers. Back onto the metro to take a look at the Fontana Di Trevi, a well photographed fountain. Then back to the hotel to sleep before dinner and TV!

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