Home»Italy > Greece > Paris - Day 03

An early start this morning, too early for breakfast at the hotel as we were already walking to the Metro at 6.20 a.m. for our early-morning tour of the Vatican. We were the only people on the platform, but as we got on the train there were a few early birds going to work. We had to be at the Tourist office for 7.15 and as we were 20 minutes early we stopped at a little cafe and each had a great coffee and warm croissant for less than the two coffees we had yesterday.

We arrived at the office to be told the other guests on the tour had changed their date to Monday, so we were the only two. It was great having a ‘private’ tour and Toni, our guide, was very knowledgeable.

We took our time strolling through the museums towards the Sistine Chapel, stopping to admire the paintings by Raphael and to see the differences between his early and later works. When we got to the Chapel itself there were only a few people there and we sat on the perimeter and spent 30 minutes or so silently taking in all of Michelangelo’s work. Not being allowed to talk in the chapel, nor to take photos, we went for a coffee and Toni answered our questions before we went back in again which by this time was probably around 10.00. Wow, what a difference, it was all about crowd control, the place was packed from wall to wall and the security guards kept telling people to stop talking. We had a few minutes to notice what Toni had pointed out earlier and then we were out of there... thank goodness!  Because of the new President's visit to meet with the Pope we could not go into St. Peter's Square until 3.00 p.m., so we decided to leave the Vatican and go back next day.  Photos are from the museums. 

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