Day six of our adventure in Italy (Mon. Ben's birthday!)

So much for some good rest. The street just outside of our hotel must have been on the way to the hospital. There were cars and motorcycles and Ambulances going all night long! You now it probably wouldn't have bothered us so much except we were super tired! We finally feel asleep some time early in the morning and did not wake up until a little after 8:00am. I was the last in the shower so I hurried so we would not miss our complimentary breakfast. Pastry's yogurt and cheese again. The pastry's are really yummy but by this point we were missing scrambled eggs.

We left our room keys with the front desk(That is what you do at all the Hotel's in Italy)and out to the sidewalk we went. We were on our way to see the famous painting by Michael Angelo on the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel. We decided to take a taxi there and then work our way back on foot seeing other interesting sites along the way. The driver dropped us off in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Where we were approched almost instantly by people asking if we spoke english and if we wanted to go on a tour, they could save us 20 min. We passed on their offers but asked where the entrance to the Sistine Chapel was. They directed us and we soon found that the line begain at the end of that street. Remember we are here in the off season. So we wait, and walk along in this line for over an hour. We were entertained every so often by a Gypsy trying to help you lose some change. When the Policia were on the street one of them would make a signal and they would all scatter. We were also entertained for a short while by 2 Policia standing next to a trash can that someone had put a lit cancer stick into and it started a fire. it was not doing much but smoking, they seemed to be waiting for a fire engine. Our line started to move and we ended up going around the corner. It ended up taking us over an hour to get into the building to buy our tickets so we could be in the Vatican Museums.( If you would like to see more pictures there is an official website http://www.vaticanmuseums.com/ )

A picture as were entering the door of the Vatican Museums were the Sistene Chapel is.

There were a lot of people in the museums. We just kept walking thru all the people stopped looking at Rugs and Paintings. We just wanted to get to the Sistene Chapel and see the ceiling. So after an hour long walk thru halls,up stairs, down stairs, thru chapels and more halls we finally made it. The famous Sistene Chapel with it's famous ceiling, was so crowded you could hardly move, good thing we were looking at the ceiling and upper walls. It was really amazing.

This is one of the many painted ceilings that was painted after Micheal Angelo had finished the Sistene Chapel.

These are some of the statue's that were in the Museum along the way to the Sistene Chapel.


This is an ancient baptistry.

I believe this is were we entered the Sistine Chapel.

After we had wound our way back out of the Vatican Museums we were greated by some guys handing out discount coupons for a Pizzaria across the main road and down the side street. So that is where we ate lunch, and drank a lot of aqua minerale. Now that we had some food in our bellys we were headed back to ST. Peters. The art work is amazing in this Basilica and the architecture is just amazing as well.

The large fountain in the middle of ST. Peters

ST. Peters the chairs are all set up facing the front of the Basilica. I presume that When the Pope is broadcast live that this is where it takes place.

The Scottish army stands guard at the Basilica.

The art work is amazing in this Basilica and the ceiling in the dome is super high. We went in the dome. We took the elavator to the 2nd floor where you were able to walk on a ledge of sorts along the lower edge of the dome.

The walls ceilings and floors are all very ornate and made of beautiful materials

This is a short video of the upperlevel of the dome.

More art in the dome of ST. Peters.

After looking at the beautiful walls inside the interior of the Dome we began the climb up the over 300 stair to the top of the Dome. It started out fairly easy until we reached the spiral staircase. It got more narrow as it went higher. There we small windows or holes in the block walls that you could look out over the city. We all made it to the top and looked out over a great part of Rome.

Can you see where the old saying "Remember Rome wasn't built in a day" came from!

Also the saying "what goes up must come down" applied to us now. I have to say or myself the going down the stairs was much more fun. We met Jackie in the square, she was going to take us to some shopping areas and then to the Trevy fountain.

I like to call this the spitting lion fountain. This was in another pritty Piazza. Jackie was taking us somewhere, shopping I think.

We rode the Metro back towards the Trevy fountain, when we arrived it was dark and the fountian was so pretty. We walked back to piazza where we were staying and found a resteraunt that was opened to serve dinner. This ended up being our least favorite meal. An explanation will follow tomorrow.

These 2 are about ready to have a meltdown, just kidding it has been a long day and they have been real troopers, we have all been real troopers!

We called to wish Ben a Happy Birthday, we left a message on his cell phone.