Italy 2013, Stato della Città del Vaticano

One of the first big stops for our tour was the Vatican. We spent roughly a half day or less in the Vatican to visit the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica. St Peters Basilica was an incredible church and definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in Rome – although make sure to book into a tour to avoid the queues.

To be honest the amount of wealth on display throughout the Vatican got a bit overwhelming and depressing towards the end of our visit. While it was great to see the inside of the Vatican and all of the incredible artwork, it was sad to think that a single group has so much power and wealth when there are so many people in need.

Some things I learnt during our time in the Vatican:

• Crowds are huge, and by huge I mean 20,000 odd people visit the Vatican every day o_O
• Queues, like the crowds, are also huge. Wouldn’t have gone to St Peters Basilica without a tour group otherwise you probably would have been waiting all day

Summary

• What we did: 1 half day in the Vatican visiting the museum and the Sistine Chapel
• Favourite part: Walking through St Peters Basilica
• Best Experience: Wandering through some of the closed off areas of the Vatican museum
• Worst Experience: The huge amount of people slowly shuffling from room to room. It made it a bit difficult at times to enjoy the surroundings
• Must See Attraction: Definitely the Sistine Chapel
• Next stop: Siena!