Vatican City, Italy

The Vatican City in Rome was on the itinerary for the second day. We were glad we joined a tour as the queue would have been a three hour long wait. I have never seen such a long queue before. The Pope and 800 other clergymen resides at the Vatican City, and they even have their own separate passports.

Oh, the other thing good about Rome was that you could get fresh and cold spring water at almost every corner of the city. I think this is remnant of the aqueducts built by the Romans. Just make sure you have an empty water bottle to refill. This water fountain was in the Vatican city itself.

This is a colossal head of Emperor Augustus measuring 2 metres high. It was found in the Roman forum but now lives in the courtyard of Pigna in the Vatican City.

This is the statue of Laocoon and his sons, apparently carved from one piece of marble. It depicts Laocoon, a figure in Greek and Roman mythology, and his sons being attacked by serpents sent by the goddess Athena after Laocoon tried to expose the ruse of the Trojan horse by striking it with a spear. It is believed to have been made in 160 to 20 BC. This is a monumental sculpture that even the ignorants (like me) can appreciate. The attention to detail is amazing- you could even see veins on the upper arm!

The Vatican Museum is vast. It has many chambers containing sculptures and wares from ancient times. But thing I like most were the paintings, especially on the walls and ceilings. Below is a picture of one of the many ceilings in the Vatican Museum. At first, I thought it was actually 3 dimension, with embossings. But the painting on the ceiling is actually just 2-D, but with shadows painted to give a 3-D illusion. The pastel colours were also refreshing- as most ceilings and walls tend to be painted in really bright, golden and gawdy colours.

The last destination of the tour was the Sistine Chapel. The Chapel is mainly famous for the work of Michaelangelo. Michaelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint 1200 square feet of the ceiling in the 15th century.  To my surprise, the chapel is actually quite small. So you have to squeeze into the space with lots of other tourists. They also did not allow any photos, which was a shame. But we managed to squeeze in a few... hehe, although not in clear focus.

The creation of Adam depicted by Michaelangelo. He depicts God giving life to Adam.

The Judgement Day painting on the wall of the Sistine Chapel.

The tour ended outside St Peter's Basilica.

St Peter's Square

And then a quick stop for lunch, and yet again a very ordinary meal (and it was pricey too).  Salad of anchovies and cheese (left). Chicken and capsicum casserole.

A very ordinary pizza- the base was hard and thick.

At this stage, we felt a bit of despair. Are we going to have at least a decent meal in Rome? Being the last day of the trip, we decided that we are going to try and find a decent restaurant tonight, no matter what.

More site-seeing for the rest of the day. This is the Pantheon, half covered with scaffolding. I think I mentioned that many monuments that we have visited during this trip were having some restorative work done. Just our luck...

Considering this was built in about 126 AD, it has stood the test of time compared to the other ancient places in Rome. It was built initially to worship the Roman gods, but since the 7th century, it has been used by the Roman Catholics as a church and dedicated to St. Mary and the martyrs.

The Pantheon Dome from inside the church

And finally, saving the best for last, the Trevi fountain. Definitely more impressive in person than in a picture.

After a long and hot day, it was nice to have a relaxing evening by having a good meal. So we headed to the Trastevere, for the second time, to scout for a better place for dinner. We spent a good half hour to forty five minutes scrutinizing menus before deciding on Ristorante da Bruno alla Lungaretta. Their menu looked as though someone had put more of an effort into rather than just the usual tourist fare of pizzas and pastas.

Thank goodness this meal turned out to be really good. It cost a bit more, but definitely well worth it.

Sea perch Ravioli                                                   Grilled fish with zucchini

                                                                                                                                             

A really delicious fettucine of prawns and raddichio- doesn't look great on photo, but the taste was spot on!

Seafood frite                                                                                  Veal saltimbucca


Luckily for this restaurant, a great way to end a good trip.

Jo Jo's  most memorable and enjoyable moments (not in order) were:

Eating gelati everyday.
Trying black truffles- you only live once, so you should try it even if you don't like mushrooms.
Eaing all the yummy pastas in Venice and Perugia.
The vision of Tuscany hills and the seas of sunflowers in bloom.
Piazza Michelangelo in Florence.
Staying at a B&B- something different to just another hotel room.
The fresh spring water in Rome.

Signing off with the famous words of Asterix and Obelix, "These Romans are crazy!"

Hmmm... where are we going next? A short trip to Bordeaux next weekend! Yay...