It Has an End!

At last! I've made it to the final blog post of our trip. Our final day in Rome was Vatican Day. We had tickets to skip the line getting into the Vatican museums and the line was huge, so it seemed it was worth it. We made our way to Vatican City and then found the museum entrance. The main draw of the Vatican museums is, of course, the Sistine Chapel. There's some other great art there, however, which should also be appreciated. Like this tapestry pointed out by John:

The Apostle Paul busting out of prison. Awesome. What we found in the Vatican Museums is that they're horribly marked and pretty confusing to figure out where you're going. You enter and then wander around rooms and through halls seeing various works of art which culminates in the Sistine Chapel. As we got closer to the Sistine Chapel, the crowds got insanely thick and the art got more famous. A terrible angle of "The School of Athens" by Raphael:

It's not really a picture-taking friendly place anyway and the crowds made it impossible to get any decent shots. At last we approached the Sistine Chapel. It is a well-known fact and it is well-marked (unlike anything else in the Vatican Museums) as you approach that complete silence is to be maintained in the Sistine Chapel. I was incredibly nervous about having Stella in there, given her history of non-reverance in the other churches we had been in. However, this was the Sistine Chapel, for crying out loud. It was not to be missed! The viewing set up makes it a bit complicated as well. You enter in one door and then you exit out the door at the opposite end. You can't exit out the entrance door and you can't leave the Vatican museums without going through the Sistine Chapel (at least, not once you get that close). So, Mr. Frisby and I came up with a plan. I would go in and take it all in at my leisure while Mr. Frisby waited in the hall with Stella. When I was done checking it out, I would tell him to come in with her and then I would take her and immediately head out the exit with her leaving Mr. Frisby to enjoy the Sistine Chapel at his leisure.

And here's where we hit the biggest hiccup of the trip. There are actually two exits out the back. One goes directly into St. Peter's Basilica and the other takes you out of the museum, through the gift shop and back out to the street. This information is not marked inside the chapel, but my family had all read about this in our guidebooks. Obviously, we preferred to go directly into the Basilica. However, our guidebook said that this direct exit into the Basilica was sometimes closed. After I had checked out the chapel, I checked out the exits. The one that went into the Basilica was marked with a sign that it was an exit for special tour groups. I assumed that meant it was closed, as our guidebook mentioned it might be. At this point, I had become somewhat separated from my family and we couldn't really communicate because of the total silence rule anyway. I was ready to have Mr. Frisby come in with Stella so I could take her out and, once they came in, I couldn't really wait around with her to see what everyone else did. So, I had Mr. Frisby come in, I took Stella, and I headed out the regular exit with her. We went down the hall a little ways and waited for Mr. Frisby. When he finished, he came out the exit and we headed to the gift shop to wait for the others since, as far as I knew, the other exit was closed and they would have to come out that way. We waited awhile and, when they never came, we figured maybe we had missed them and headed out to the street to walk around to the Piazza in front of the Basilica to see if we could find them there. We enjoyed the Vatican City walls as we walked (it was quite a ways).

I should pause here to give my thoughts on the Sistine Chapel. It was absolutely stunning. I would love to have been able to lay down on my back and look up at the ceiling and take it all in, but the crowds made that impossible. So, I just looked up and tried to grasp all of the detail and beauty of it. It is truly some of the most incredible art I have ever seen and not to be missed if you are in Rome.

We made it to the Piazza and waited a long time. We kept scanning the Piazza, but there was no sign of any of my family anywhere and we really had no idea where we might find them. We took in the Piazza and the Basilica as we waited.

The line to get into the Basilica was pretty long, so after awhile, we decided we better wait in it before it got any later since, at that point, we thought we would be on our own for the rest of the day. As we waited, I finally spotted Gaylene near one of the fountains. I left Mr. Frisby in line and ran over to her to find out what had happened to them. It turns out they all stuck together as a "group" and snuck through the exit that went directly into the Basilica. So, while we were out waiting and looking all over the place for them, they were checking out the Basilica without us. We were none to happy about the situation and waited in the long line by ourselves to get into St. Peter's Basilica. We planned to possibly meet the others after we were done if it all worked out. The line actually moved fairly quickly and it didn't take us long in the Basilica, so we came out and had time to quickly check out the Vatican City Guards and then grab lunch.

We walked around the corner from the Basilica and found a little deli. We ended up having a great little lunch and then were able to meet up with the rest of my family. We opted to walk from the Vatican back into Rome and enjoyed some Italian icons along the way.

We walked along the river and enjoyed the view of St. Peter's Basilica from there.

It was a decent walk and we soon found ourselves in the mood for gelato. We plotted a course to our favorite gelato spot, Giolitti, for one last cone before our time in Rome was done.

The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent trying to get in some shopping and more sightseeing. We headed to the Spanish steps again and did some shopping there. We also grabbed a quick last dinner in Rome right where we had our first - McDonald's. I opted for an Italian menu exclusive - some kind of calzone type thing - and it was terrible. Then we went to the Piazza del Popolo to check it out. Stella had a great time playing in the fountain there.

After another busy and tiring day, we headed back to our hotel. We had checked out that day, but had left our baggage there until we were done for the day. We then had a couple of vans take us to another hotel that was much closer to the airport since we would be catching our flight first thing the next morning.

It was a fabulous vacation and so fun to be able to spend it with much of my family. In many ways, I would loved to have stayed to see more. But, after two and a half weeks of traveling with a two-year-old, I was exhausted and ready to come home. We saw and did so much and definitely found some places we'll have to return to someday. And now, five months later, Stella is still talking about it!