VATICAN MUSEUM, SISTINE CHAPEL, AND COLOSSEUM TOURS, OH MY! (Thursday, 9-9-2021)

We were all up EARLY this morning so we could grab a cup of coffee at McDonald’s before finding our meeting place for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel tour.  Well, that didn’t happen!  We attempted to find two different McDonald’s and each time they seriously got further and further away!  We decided to find the meeting place first (which we did) and it happened to have a cafe close by!  The coffee was delicious, as it should have been for over 50 euros!  Location, location, right?  

That price, however, did include John’s muffin!

Take note of how bright eyed and bushy tailed we were BEFORE the tour!

This was our ticket for the Vatican Museum, which lasted every bit of THREE HOURS.  We had a darling tour guide who was beyond passionate about the artwork.  She did an outstanding job of explaining every single thing to us!

The grounds were meticulous and the treasures inside were something to behold.  The beautiful dome of St. Peter’s Basilica is the tallest building in Rome.  This picture was taken from a garden area of the Vatican.

These pictures were taken inside the Vatican Museum.

After three long hours, Patte and I looked like this!  FOR REAL!  Dear Lord, did we ever need a beer and a place to put our feet up! 

But we still had the Sistine Chapel to go through.  It was amazing to see (again) but no pictures were allowed to be taken, so sorry I have none to share!

We had a several hour break (thank goodness!) before the next THREE HOUR TOUR of the Colosseum and Archaeological Sights.  Patte almost bagged it, however, we are Team Giovanni and our motto is “One for all and all for one!”

When John and I toured the Colosseum eight years ago, all I remember was how HOT it was.  I didn’t think any of us would make it through the entire tour.  Luckily, the weather was perfect and the wind was blowing through all of the archways.  It was actually very comfortable, except for the million steps we had to climb that were built for giants! 😳  To top it off, we had an adorable young Italian man as our guide.  He, too, did an outstanding job.

But once we were outside and the Colosseum portion of the tour was over, Team Giovanni decided very quickly that it was FINISHED!  We skipped the tour of the archaeological area (sorry, Chloe!) and hopped on a taxi to our street and barely made it up the steps to our flat!  We didn’t see Patte the rest of the night!  Mike opted to stay put and have cheese and crackers for dinner.  John and I walked to a close by restaurant for dinner.

This was, BY FAR, the most exhausting day of our trip!  Hopefully, by morning, we will all be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed once again!  

CIAO FOR NOW!