Inter Rail 1987 Day 19
Wednesday 17th June 1987
Woke up out of a deep sleep at the gloriously late hour of 9.15am and had a lovely hot shower. Jon got up a
little later, got chuntered at by the little woman in charge and missed out on the hot water. We were out and about after having a breakfast of
biscuits and cheese by 10.00am.
Got back on bus 64 down to St. Peter's Square and then walked round the corner to the entrance to the Vatican museum. A beautiful double
staircase graced the main entrance. The entrance fee was 7000 lira but it was well worth it.
There were marvelous collections of all sorts of things from all around the world at various times, including Egyptian mummies, silly fountains
in the shape of ships and statues everywhere. My particular favourite was the Gallery of Maps. As you move from one end of the long room to the
other, the maps on display change with time showing how the map of the world evolved as it was discovered and charted. It also had an
incredibly ornate painted ceiling.
The final highlight of the visit was the Sistine Chapel. It was a somewhat weird place. Every 15 minutes an announcement is made over the
tannoy to tell everyone to be quiet, it's a religious chapel. Everyone goes silent but as new people arrive the sound increases until the new
announcement is made.
The restoration of the ceiling was about halfway through. The bad hoohah about the cleaning work is, in my humble opinion, wrong. The parts of
the ceiling not cleaned up were impressive due to the fact that one man alone had conceived and created them. However, the cleaned parts were
absolutely gorgeous, much more light, colourful and less oppresive. Decided at some point, I would have to go back and see the whole thing in
restored mode.
After the Sistine we headed quickly to the museum exit just stopping to buy a tourist book about the Vatican with pictures of La Pieta. We got
back on the bus as far as the Piazza Venezia and then made our way on foot towards the Colosseum or the Flavian Amphitheatre and the Roman
Forum.
We didn't bother to pay to go into the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill as you could see a lot from outside the site and a lot of it was a bit
building site-ish. We didn't have to pay to go into the lower section of the Colosseum which was how it was back in Roman times. It's got a
little derelict over the years for my taste but is still great to spend time having a look at, including
the famous cats.
We then wandered off the beaten track in the general direction of the Trevi fountain and more by luck than by judgement made it there. Spent a
delightful hour sat next to the fountain watching the world go by. Jon tossed in a very small coin and I threw in a forint. Paddling was not
allowed as you get whistled at by a policeman.
We sat and eat a lovely portion of pizza plus two large beers and then made our way back to the hotel on foot, window shopping enroute. We then spent the rest of the day dossing about reading books and dozing until about 9.00pm when we ventured out. We
walked back down to the Trevi fountain area. It was absolutely heaving with coin tossing tourists.
We wandered back towards the station and had a touristica menu of lasagne, cheeseburger, chips, salad and beer for 10,000 lira each. Bed and
sleep ensued.
 Vatican
Museum |
 St. Peters |
 St. Peters |
 Vatican
Museum |
 Vatican
Museum |
 Vatican
Colosseum |
 Colosseum |
 Roman Forum |
 Trevi Fountain |
 Trevi Fountain |
 Trevi Fountain |
Got back on bus 64 down to St. Peter's Square and then walked round the corner to the entrance to the Vatican museum. A beautiful double
staircase graced the main entrance. The entrance fee was 7000 lira but it was well worth it.
