THE VATICAN
5th June 2002
Now where's Johnno.....
Our last day in Rome was planned to end with a bang.. the Vatican! I had read the previous night that St. Peter's Basillica closes at 7pm, so I let Rob sleep in until 11am. We then got ready leisurely, went and had brunch and made some phone calls to Oz. (ok...I spoke to my family again:) and finally took the metro to the Vatican around 4pm for our audience with the Pope:)
Looked around the spectacular St. Peters square and made our way into the church itself. Oh... there was another obelisk in the square known as the Vatican obelisk, which we have now added to our collection as well (just in case you were wondering how we were doing:) St. Peters' Basillica is magnificent in its decoration, there is marble everywhere. The floors, the walls, the tombs, the statues, the memorials...the mind boggles and it is a bit intimidating and awe inspiring to be in such a place. You can't help but feel the power of the church and I don't just mean a Godly power either:) but then again, if there was a place for Divine intervention.. this should definitely be the place huh?:)
We didn't actually see the Pope but we did wave goodbye and have now fondly called him "Johno". The Vatican museums are about 500m away and that is were we were going to. The Sistine chapel was to be the highlight of our trip, the cherry on top so to speak. We arrived outside the doors...and it was closed. Turns out I had read the Lonely Planet incorrectly... the museums close at 2.30pm..we never had a chance:( Oh well.... typical.. guess we'll have to put it on our next time list.
Really disappointed though but it was our own fault, at least we have visited the Vatican and St. Peters and have the piccies to prove it:)
Vatican - Not so good Official Website
and much better site
here also good info
here and heaps links
to Vatican sites
here.
Reading CCN later that night we see this article.......don't mean to be alarmist but we were there that afternoon, luckily though a few hours after it happened and also turned out to be a fake bomb...unfortunately though it shows how close to home these events that "happen on the other side of the world" can get...
And that brings part two of our three part journey to a close..(part one being our initial month in Athens) and what a whirlwind of a journey it has been.. we are going to bore you to tears when we come back:)
Tomorrow we leave for Greece. (If I can drag Rob away from the computer and free 24hr internet)
We head for Bari which is on the eastern coast of Italy and then catch a ferry across to Patras (Greece), we then catch a train to Athens. All in all our journey should be quite short...we leave Rome at 9am Thursday and arrive in Athens at 7pm Friday...hmmmmmmmm.. a mere 34 hours ...I think I'm taking sleeping tablets!
Anyway guys.. it's been great...but don't think we're ending here.. I'm sure the next two and a half months will provide lots of entertaining tales of our escapades throughout all the various Greek Islands. In fact... I'm sure of it:)
Arriverdecci for now, we'll see you on the other side:)
and always remember.....:
When the moon hits your eye
like a big pizza pie, that's amore,
that's amore... That's amoreeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
(shower of petals and kisses)