The Purple Penguin

Or we went to the Vatican today (ooo look, the Sistine Chapel!).

Up stupidly early – 5am – as I got breakfast tickets for the Vatican. Slightly less than the early morning “open the museum” tickets, but still very early! (So the open the museum is you show up at 6am and get to follow around the person who unlocks the doors and turns on the lights – but you have to email for prices and availability so . . . ) I got us the 7:15 breakfast and then museum entrance at 8am. We got there far too early and had to wait so walked around the walls a bit. Then in for breakfast.

When they let you in, there is a museum guard waiting for you and you follow him through security, then to the ticket office to pick up museum tickets and vouchers for breakfast and audio guides. We waited for a bit for everyone to get through security and sort tickets, then followed the guide up into the museum. We were led out onto a terrace where we could see the dome of St Peter’s in the fog, then when everyone had got to the terrace we were led to the restaurant for breakfast. Unfortunately too cold and foggy for breakfast in the Pinecone Courtyard!

Breakfast is ok and there is plenty of it, but I wanted to get started on the museum. However, they have guards at all the entrances – like people are going to sneak away from breakfast to see stuff. Humph. 

Once they finally freed us to roam, we headed up only to find many of the galleries still closed. So we decided to go to the Sistine Chapel first while it was still a bit quiet and before the tour groups started. Got to see a bit, especially the long corridors, and down into the Chapel which is lovely. Several other people had the same idea so it was busy, but not crowded (though there was one annoying tour guide waving his flag on a stick and nearly hitting us in the head!) In fact, after looking around we were allowed to go back the way we’d come in to go see the apartments (Rafael and Borgia rooms). This led us to a different way to the Sistine Chapel (we went up the stairs rather than down). The Rafaels and Borgia rooms were interesting, though the modern art wasn’t as interesting to us. The Chapel was actually less busy this second time so we took our time looking at everything.

There are two exits to the Chapel (and you really shouldn’t do what we did the first time and go back through the entrance!) one is for visitors and the other for tour groups. The tour group exit actually takes you to St Peter’s Basilica – a sneaky way around that means you don’t have to walk all the way around the country to the Basilica entrance and join the huge queue. But we took the individual exit as I wanted to see the rest of the museum. We got rid of the audio guides at a leave point as we weren’t using them and headed back into the museum to see everything We didn’t manage everything, but managed a fair bit before Joe had had enough. This time the Sistine Chapel was packed (yes, we saw it three times), the guards were telling people to keep moving, not to stop, don’t take pictures, no guides talking! So we moved through the crowds had a quick look, and ducked out the guided tours exit.

This takes you to a courtyard and you go across the front of the Basilica to the entrance. We managed to work our way through the crowds to see the Pieta, then had a look at the rest of the building. Found the monument to ‘James III’ of England – recognised by the Pope but not the UK. And then headed down to the crypts and out. 

We then walked along the river and back to the hotel. Wanted to see Michaelangelo’s Moses, but went past the church and decided not to go back. So we’ll try to do that tomorrow. Had another lovely meal, but missed gelato again!