Friday 14th June  -  Rome
Happy birthday Anne. Hope you got my email.

This morning we needed to be in the foyer of the hotel to be picked up for something I booked months ago and have now forgotten.
And we were, and it turned out to be a tour of the Vatican City. My goodness me!!!! It was similar to our tour of Versailles when all I could see right the way around was the back of Peter's shirt. If any of you are planning on going, or have friends with plans, tell them they absolutely must book a tour group. Chaos reigned. And all in temperatures that soared to 37C. When we were finally sorted into an English speaking group, we followed our guide on an endless walk up hill passing many hundreds of people just sitting in a queue. The closer we came to the entrance, the more the people looked statuesque. Had they been there from the day before?

We entered the Vatican Museum first where photos are allowed without flash and the guides are allowed to tell you all they know. We had a charming Italian lady who knew everything so after the first half hour we just had to pull the whisper plugs out of our ears. I can actually tell you nothing at all. It was an arduous experience which took heavy toll on Peter so I was more concerned on his keeping up with the group in that mass of humanity. The art collection is supreme but after two hours in those crowds, in that heat we would have liked to bail out. But we couldn't. Where's out? Then suddenly we were divorced from our guide, told to put our cameras away,  and given half an hour to go through the Sistine Chapel and meet up with our guide at the other end. Throughout the Chapel guards were constantly moving people along, trying to stop them from talking. What a job! Of course it was all totally breathtaking but equally exhausting.

Then just when we thought it was over, we had to walk through the Basilica itself and listen to our guide telling us all she knew.  It is all unimaginably huge, and bigger and better than anything anywhere else in the world (so we kept being told). I can fully understand the motivation behind the Reformation. There was no reason to be quite so callous about it, but a change was warranted.

Eventually we were allowed outside into the Square where the Pope speaks to the masses and of course that too was vast. Eventually the guide ended the tour and left us outside Vatican City, back in Rome having walked 11,000 steps, and having no idea where we were. Our most dire needs were drink , chairs and food (at 1.30pm)
so we staggered into an air conditioned restoronti and started the recovery process.
Actually one of the most entertaining aspects of the tour was watching those whose custom it is trying desperately to get photos of themselves by these monumental art works in that density of humanity.  They truly expected us to move around them to get the perfect shot. I'm sure the inability quite ruined their experience. They even tried it in front of The Pieter. NO!.

Eventually we grabbed a cab and he drove us for an endless amount of time through the insane traffic to our front door. Dear man. Then a shower and bed. That was our once-in-a-life-time Vatican City experience. And to think that is going on 364 days of every year (presuming they have Christmas day off). What a huge business enterprise it is.

Much later in the day, we hobbled out the front door of our hotel and tried turning right. It was a tad cooler by then so we tried walking around the block and discovering our whereabouts. And there was the railway station where we came in last evening. How funny. We had no idea we were that close. It took our taxi driver an age to get us here, but that's because of the density of the traffic and the one-way system. Our feet were still smarting from the morning, so we found ourselves a restaurant on a footpath with the railtrack running alongside and enjoyed prosecco and sea bass which is certainly my favourite. Quite apart from the monuments, history and architecture of this city, the people are an entertainment in their own right. How can people be so entirely different? FASCINATING!!!