This place is massive. I could compare the Vatican, I think, to the Smithsonian. So very much to see and nowhere near enough time to see even a fraction of it.
We pulled over on a side street after entering Vatican City, right across from the Museum.
I believe they said this was the original main entrance, but there had been renovations not long ago for some occasion (the year 2000, maybe?). Our historian was not organized enough to have the whisper-thingy headsets from us, and was trying to get $$ from us to pay some guy on a Vespa. NONE of that had been mentioned by Claudio in my reservation of the tour. We somehow settled the issue, as none of us had the right form of Euros for this, and eventually were guided inside and we got our tickets. Again, I seem to recall her having to do this and us having to give her money for it. Like a bad memory....the details are beginning to fade. This was in the lobby to give us an idea of the terrain we were about to cover:
I could post picture after picture here of what I was able to capture in the Vatican, and while I'll do a few, please go here:
http://s1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff449/skamerrill/Rome/?start=all
if you want to see them all. There were many different themed rooms: a map room, a quill room, an "art on the ceiling" room. Our historian rattled off information at lightening speed, but it was so difficult to understand her. You could follow along, and you could tell if you were dawdling when your headset would become static...then you knew you needed to hurry up and catch up. As mindy said, we lost her son for a few minutes...but he was found and lived to go to Alaska !:good vibes
For me, it was surreal to be standing in the courtyard of the Vatican. How many times have I seen this on TV? And I was THERE! In the teeny-tinest country in the whole world!!
At this point, we were led to where our guides would be meeting us. We got back on board, and were taken back to the port. We had agreed prior to going (all 16 of us), that we'd prefer to be safe and be back at the port early. None of us had done a tour on our own at that time and we all were a bit worried about not making it back. We got back to the port about 5:30-6-ish, I think? Early, definitely, and kind of nice because the ship was empty still. We pooled our money and paid the drivers. We did add a tip, as they were friendly and helpful, and in no way was that historian any fault of theirs.
Dinner that night was cruise casual, and we had characters coming to the tables!
We were really tired after this excursion. At this point, had this been an 11-night cruise, we would have gotten a sea day the next day. But no...tomorrow held the Port of La Spezia and for us, Cinque Terre. Off to dreamland: