The Vatican has been its own separate country since 1929 and is the smallest country in the world, both in terms of population and acres.
If you didn’t book a tour that has special access before the official opening time be prepared for wall-to-wall people. The Vatican museum officially opens at 9 and we arrived around 9:10. The line for tickets was already insane. So, I would say if there is anywhere in Rome that you want to go and tickets are required pre-book. You’ll save yourself a lot of time. We were told this is the situation anytime between April through mid-October. We had again bought tickets ahead of time, but outside the Vatican there was a tour company that would give us credit on our tickets and give us a guided tour for 25 more a person. Anyway, we figured why not let someone else lead us around.
The Sistine chapel was just beautiful. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed in the chapel. The work of Michelangelo was amazing even though he was not initially a painter. He learned how to paint frescoes when painting the chapel ceiling. Michelangelo ended up being partially blind after painting the ceiling. As he was looking up, the paint would continuously be falling in his eyes. He did manage to get some revenge from being forced to paint that ceiling. When painting the Last Judgement on the chapel wall, he painted every figure naked and refused to clothe them when asked. It was only after his death that the Pope had someone come in and clothe the important figures.
From there we walked over to the Castel Sant’ Angelo. The statue on top of the castle was in the Angels and Demons movie. The Da Vinci Code series is one of Will’s favorites and he really enjoyed going through Rome and seeing different places that are from the movie. He also, enjoyed finding places from a certain Lizzie McGuire movie. Will has seen more than his fair share of teen heartthrob movies as he would take Alyssa to the movies while she was growing up.
We also checked out the Piazza Navona Underground. The Piazza Navona has an interesting shape in that the buildings on one end form an arch shape. That is because the Piazza buildings are on top of the Stadium of Domitian. The Underground explains the history of the stadium and the metamorphosis of the current Piazza.
We then visited the Pantheon. Not to be confused with the Parthenon in Greece. The Pantheon is a large domed structure that is over 2,000 years old. The building has withstood earthquakes, fire, and pillaging.
Dinner for me was wild boar. Really good stuff.