Day 3 - Vatican Museum

Arrival In Rome

Coming from Seattle, I arrived in Rome late Friday afternoon. Indeed, entirely by chance, I arrived at the hotel, unpacked and just left my room to look for Peter & Yvonne only to discover Yvonne coming down the stairs, in preparation for dinner. So I was introduced to the remainder of the group. And I even remembered some of the names!

Saturday, 05 Oct 2002

After a not-too-early start, we were on the bus to Vatican City to visit the Museum, the Sistine Chapel and then St. Peter's Basilica.

Queue waiting to enter Vatican Museum; Vatican walls on right

We arrived before the museum opened, so joined the end of the queue. We were about half way down the wall; before it started moving (when the museum opened) the queue snaked around the wall at the far end of this image.

Queue waiting to enter Vatican Museum; Vatican walls on right

And the queue snakes on up towards the museum entrance, which is located just underneath the tower on the wall. The experience of handling large crowds clearly helps the Museum deal expeditiously with the volume of visitors, and we really had no major delays anywhere on our passage through the Museum and Sistine Chapel.

Typical Roma Street, leading away from the Vatican Museum

One of the side streets we passed while shuffling towards the museum entrance. It seems that apartments are the standard living arrangement, unlike Australia and the USA, where the suburban home rules.

Inside The Museum

Michelangelo's Dome of St. Peters Basilica

Michelangelo's magnificent dome of St. Peter's Basilica, as seen from the Museum entrance area.

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