Kind's Retirement Travels: 2024 Italian Sojourn- ROME May 14

Tuesday, we got up at 6 and Francesco from Just Chilling Suites drove us to our meeting point for our Skip-the-Line Vatican tour with Viator. We had a small group of 10 with guide Lucia. Knees and shoulders must be covered for this tour. Scarf vendors came around to accommodate those who did not prepare. Our entry time was 8:30 a.m. We toured part of the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. No pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel. It was full of people looking up! We felt rushed through all of this. We were done at 11:00. All of the tour was very crowded except the Vatican Garden. 25,000 people a day go through. It was a sunny, beautiful day, high 80F.

Vatican Garden

Outside in St. Peter's Square

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

Statue of St. Peter

Dome in St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's altar in Basilica

Tombs of popes under Vatican

Mosaic of Garden of Gethsemene

Swiss Guards at Vatican

Swiss Guard at Vatican

St. Peter's Square

Mosaic floor inside Vatican

Inside Vatican-baths of Titus-81 AD

Hercules Statue inside Vatican

Vatican passage to Sistine Chapel

Ancient ruins in Rome

We had lunch before walking to the Pantheon which had very long lines, so we skipped it and went back to our rooms by taxi. After a brief rest we walked to the train station to buy tickets to Florence on Thursday. We then walked to dinner where we had pasta, meat antipasti, beer and wine.

We walked to Trevi Fountain at about 8:00 (almost dark) where we threw a coin over our shoulders to ensure we'd return to Rome. It was quite crowded but beautiful. We then walked to the Spanish steps which were also very crowded- we did not walk up. After stopping for gelato, we walked back to our rooms by 10 p.m., very sore and tired! Over 25,000 steps.