While waiting at immigration, we bumped into some familiar faces who had been on our flight - Stevie

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Touching down in Rome, I hate how Ryanair boast about how they re the "on-time airline". If you give yourself thirty minutes more than you actually need to fly somewhere, then of course you re going to arrive early or on-time, most of the time.
While waiting at immigration, we bumped into some familiar faces who had been on our flight - Stevie 3 and his girlfriend sedona arizona jeep tours Sheree who were on the Viking Star with us in the Greek Islands last year . They were also here for the long weekend, along
Yellow sedona arizona jeep tours Hostel has a reputation as being a fun party hostel and it certainly seemed that way as we walked through its lively bar en route to the reception. At around 30€ a night, it s expensive for a hostel, but then accommodation in general in the Eternal City is pretty pricey so we were still at the cheaper end of the spectrum. A 10€ deposit for a towel however, is excessive in any city .
We were both weary, tired and hungry, so we settled for a pizza at the restaurant next to the hostel. My friend Monica who had given me brilliant tips for my trips to Budapest and Milan had told me not to eat anywhere near Termini
We hit the sack straight after dinner hoping to get a good night s sleep but it didn t really happen as the American guys in our dorm all left early in the morning to catch trains, waking us up in the process.
sedona arizona jeep tours They did provide a hot tip though - when talking to them the night before, they had recommended doing an organised tour of the Vatican with a company called Rome-ing sedona arizona jeep tours Tours. Their Canadian guide Weston apparently was a bit of a hoot, but knew his shit and explained everything in typical North American style, complete with young-person-speak. We would be seeing a lot of things at the Vatican, so it would probably help to have someone telling us exactly what we are looking at.
Castel Sant'Angelo Hadrian's mausoleum. The bridge leading up to it is the Ponte Sant'Angelo. and humorous. With him was his assistant for the day, a petit Canadian girl called Monica who he proceeded to take the mickey sedona arizona jeep tours out of all day, encouraging us to do likewise.
Literally cramming ourselves into a public bus that took us to the Vittorio Emanuelle II Bridge, we sat by the Tiber River while Weston explained to us the historical background of what we were to see at the Vatican today.
Jesus dies; his best buddy Peter ("they were tight", explained Weston) takes over and decides to go to the most powerful city in the world to spread the word of Christ - Rome; Rome is ruled by a tyrannical, greedy nutjob called Nero ("but his palace was bad-ass ") who is blamed for the Great Fire of Rome in 64AD; Nero denies arson and blames the Christians sedona arizona jeep tours and starts persecuting them; Peter gets crucified upside down; after Nero dies, Christianity becomes more and more popular; Emperor Constantine makes Christianity the official religion of the Empire and builds a church over Peter s grave;
Statues Statues such as this contributed to the spiritual atmosphere that exists inside St. Peter's Basilica. Peter becomes St. Peter and is recognised as the first Bishop of Rome - in other words, the first Pope; in 1507, work begins on St. Peter s Basilica which replaces the original church built by Constantine.
We then walked over the Bridge sedona arizona jeep tours of Hadrian, or the Ponte Sant Angelo , which leads up to the Castel Sant Angelo, Emperor Hadrian s cylindrical mausoleum. Along the bridge are the statues of ten angels, of which each holds an instrument of the Passion - basically, objects that are related to Jesus s suffering immediately before his crucifixion. For example there is an angel holding a nail, one holding a cross, one holding a crown of thorns yada yada.
I had been reading Dan Brown s Angels & Demons leading up to this trip which was pretty good at describing parts of Rome and in particular, the Vatican. St. Peter s Square, looked almost exactly as I thought it would. Although not feeling sedona arizona jeep tours as giddy as I did tracing sedona arizona jeep tours Jason Bourne s steps in Tangier , I did still feel a
St. Peter s Square is circular rather than square, sedona arizona jeep tours and is rather vast - Pope Alexander VII wanted it this way so "the greatest number of people can see the Pope give his blessing". There is an obelisk in the middle sedona arizona jeep tours of the square (the Illuminati are everywhere!) as well as matching fountains either side of it.
After Sags held up the whole group while getting his gelato, we finally headed inside the Vatican walls and into the famous Vatican Museums, which are supposedly minted and extensive. Apparently if you look at every exhibit in the museums for one minute each, it would take you three years to see everything.
Weston has been through sedona arizona jeep tours the museums so many times that he even knew the ticket clerk would give female visitors student prices in exchange for a smile and a wink ("if you want to sell your dignity, go to ticket booth number
When Italy became a united country, the government wanted to rule out of Rome, which was in control of the church, and the church governed all Catholics in Europe from Rome. The Italian government couldn t exactly attack the Vatican since it would anger most of Europe sedona arizona jeep tours let alone its own citizens, sedona arizona jeep tours but it needed sedona arizona jeep tours complete control of Rome - and the church refused to recognise the Italian government, stating that the church needed independence from any political power in order to carry out it s spiritual governance of all Catholics. This left things in a stalemate during which relations between the Italian government and the church became more and more strained. It was all a bit petty and remained this way until a final solution was made in 1929 - which resulted in the creation of the Vatican City as it s own sovereign state.
Cortile del Belvedere Immaculately kept courtyard in the Vatican, home to a spinning globe and a ancient pinecone statue. by the Lateran Treaty, and is known as the final conciliation - and thus the grand avenue of Via della Conciliazione was created as a symbolic link between the Vatican and Rome, "The Road of the Conciliation".
Weston then also explained why the Vatican sedona arizona jeep tours City has all these guys in ridiculous-looking, court jester-like uniforms running around it - these are the Swiss Guards who protect the Pope and the Vatican in general and have been doing so for more than 500 years.
After that history lesson, we walked into another courtyard with perfect lawns and a huge revolving globe in the middle of it. The courtyard is the Cortile del Belvedere and the sculpture is the "Sphere Within A Sphere" a sculpture that can be spun around as demonstrated by Adam, a big American guy in our tour group. Another quirky feature of the Cortile del Belvedere is a bronze pinecone statue that dates back to 1AD.
Apollo - "The Face" "Some of you may have heard of the god Apollo, some of you may know him from Rocky". I guess when you re responsible for the creation of David , the most revered sculpture of all time, and the design of St. Peter s Basilica, I guess you can afford to be a little arrogant.
Weston then waxed lyrical about what he called "the greatest work of art of all time" and how Michelangelo painted this ceiling fresco faster than anyone before him despite having never painted a fresco before, working eighteen hours a day on it. If you get a sore neck looking up, imagine doing it for eighteen hours a day. While painting at the same time. What Weston was talking about, was of course, the Sistine Chapel - which we were about to see.
Weston points out the two main works of art here; an ancient sculpture of Apollo ("some of you may have heard of the god Apollo, some of you may know him from Rocky") nicknamed "The Face", as the statue s face is supposed to be the epitome of aesthetic perfection; and another ancient sculpture of
The museums are absolutely rammed with tourists and I end up losing sedona arizona jeep tours the tour group - so much for having someone telling me about everything I was looking at. While walking through the museums, I tried to find any pocket of space I could, trying not to get swallowed up by the huge swathes of tour groups.
There are all sorts of objects on display; busts, statues, sedona arizona jeep tours sculptures, sarcophagi, sedona arizona jeep tours tapestries and paintings among them. My favourite part of the museums was probably the gallery of maps, where every single part of Italy is painted with detail onto the walls of this never-ending hallway. I love maps. The paintings were based on drawings by Ignazio Danti, who apparently drew maps of places sedona arizona jeep tours without any measurement tools, from high vantage points. His drawings have been proven to be 99% accurate. Impressed as I was with the gallery sedona arizona jeep tours of maps, what actually impressed me most however, were the frescoes. They were so detailed and they adorned just about every ceiling - they were incredible. And not only
Gallery Of Maps There are maps of every part of Italy adorning the walls of this never-ending hallway, sedona arizona jeep tours but check out that ceiling (and the incessant amount of tourists). that - a lot of the ceilings appeared to be framed and decorated sedona arizona jeep tours with gold . I thought the Hall of Constantine in the Rafael Rooms was pretty amazing and was almost sedona arizona jeep tours like a preview of the Sistine Chapel.
Don t get me wrong though, its still a brilliant piece of work - the ceiling is higher, sedona arizona jeep tours longer and wider than anything else I saw. I don t think it helped though, that the lighting was low and that the ceiling was so high - it meant you struggled to see the detail of the paintings.
Hall Of Constantine I couldn't take photos in the Sistine Chapel, but this is probably the closest thing to it. is indeed still a chapel by the Swiss guards who repeatedly shouted "no photo!" and "quiet!". Damn tourists.
The tour ended here and Weston bade us goodbye. I really liked his tour and his commentary - OK, so not all of his joke