Destination: France & Italy
Duration: 15 Days 15 Nights (Sep 02~Sep 17, 2014)
Day 10: Vatican City – Queue, Queue & More
Queue!!!
The sky had basically lost it colours in the morning of
September 11. We too were weeping together with it as we had to start our
journey under yet another weeping sky. Our destination of the day was Vatican
City thus we took the metro from Repubblica to Ottaviano Station (towards
Batttistini direction).
We’d bought the Vatican Museum ticket online (link)
for 12noon slot but we just wanted to make sure the location of the entrance
for online ticket thus we walked to the museum entrance from Ottaviano Station
first. We were completed stunned by the long queue 500meter away from the
entrance – apparently these people were queuing to get a ticket under the rain.
*sweat* Thankfully the online ticket enable you to skip the queue and you can
simply walk straight to the entrance for pre-purchase ticket at the timing of
your ticket.
 |
| Walking along the wall of Vatican City |
 |
| The Vatican Museum |
 |
| Raining & Queuing for a ticket in Vatican Museum - thankfully we got the online ticket |
 |
| Look at the long long line! |
Since we’d found the correct entrance, we slowly walked
back to Piazza San Pietro direction along the Vatican wall under the rain. We
were quite hungry as breakfast was not included in our hotel stay at Hotel
Regina Giovanni thus we walked to Alice Pizza to grab some brunch. Alice Pizza
served tons of pizza whereby you can choose in different sizes to sample
different flavours. We were immediately entranced by the pizza and kind of
over-ordered a bit… *facepalm* Surprisingly my favourite was the tomato chunks
& anchovy pizza which offered sweet, sour & salty in one-go. We were
beyond stuffed when we stepped into Piazza San Pietro.
 |
| At Alice Pizza |
 |
| All looks so Tempting |
 |
| Hmm... I think we might've over-indulge a bit.. |
Our 1st impression of Piazza San Pietro? It
was INSANE!!! People were everywhere and the queue to get into the Basilica di
San Pietro was at least 1km long!!! *shocked* I’d never seen anything like this
anywhere else! My advise? Go there as early as possible to avoid this
ridiculous queue!!! Just arrive there by 7am that it should be fine… I hope!
 |
| Raining at Piazza San Pietro |
 |
| Look at all these people queuing!!! |
 |
| Let's take picture before queue |
 |
| Basilica di San Pietro |
 |
| Queue Queue Queue!!! |
 |
| The Main Entrance of Piazza San Pietro |
 |
| I don't think we can make it =( |
We were queuing from raining till sunshine and we finally
had to leave the queue halfway since it was near 12noon for our Vatican Museum
online ticket. Gosh! We had to walk along the wall again to get to the museum
entrance which was like 1-2km away! Our legs were killing us even before we
started to really enter any sights in Vatican City… *sweat*
 |
| Walking again to the Museum |
We got into Vatican Museum with our ‘express lane’ and
moved along with 10,000,000 people in there. People were everywhere! We basically
followed the map given and took the complete itinerary path. Everything in the
museum was so grand and pretty and we were in there for quite some time before
reaching the main event - Sistine Chapel. There were people in every inches of
this chapel standing and looking up admire the masterpiece on the ceiling. You
know the one that have two finger touching which shows up in numerous movies
(like 2012 the disaster movie)? The one they called “The Creation of Adam” by
Michelangelo? Ok, I admit I just Google this name since I’m a total art dummy.
*blush* Anyway photography was not allowed in Sistine Chapel though.
 |
| Entering the Museum |
 |
| Part of the Museum is outdoor |
 |
| A Fountain |
 |
| Part of the Courtyard |
 |
| Lots of Sculptures |
 |
| The Beautiful Staircase |
 |
| Another Courtyard |
 |
| The Famous "Laocoon & His Sons" |
 |
| Sammy meets a friend! |
 |
| More to come.. |
 |
| Another Gallery |
 |
| A Bronze Statue? |
 |
| Even the Floor looks Exqusite |
 |
| A View out from Vatican Museum |
 |
| At the Egytian Collection |
 |
| OMG Look at the Ceiling! |
 |
| What a piece of Art! |
 |
| More Arts! |
 |
| I think this is the Raphael's Room? |
 |
| More pictures |
 |
| There are stories writen on board but i don't remember them.. :p |
 |
| More Amazing Ceiling |
 |
| I'm amazed how they painted these things on the ceiling |
 |
| A Picture of Sistine Chapel Ceiling - picture taken from a poster at the shop since no picture is allowed inside the chapel itself. See "Creation of Adam" in the middle.. |
 |
| Even a table looks so amazing |
 |
| A Model of Basilica di San Pietro |
 |
| A View of Basilica from Museum |
Another famous ‘landmark’ in the Vatican Museum would be
the spiral staircases which happened to appear in numerous movies such as “Mission
Impossible” and is one of the most beautiful staircases in the world.
 |
| THE STAIRCASE!!! Tom Cruise was there! |
 |
| Let's do something silly! |
 |
| That's me!!! |
 |
| The Dome on top of the Staircase |
 |
| Still long queue for Vatican Museum |
 |
| Goodbye! |
After the museum, we painfully walked back to Piazza San
Pietro again to continue our queue to visit Basilica di San Pietro. The line
was slightly (just slightly!!!) shorter than in the morning and it still took
us around an hour before managed to step into the Basilica. The grandeur at the
Basilica was of course unrivaled since Vatican City is one of the richest countries
in the world. We did not go up to the Cupola as it was too late and we simply
couldn’t feel our feet after many hours of queuing and walking – you could take
the steps (551) or the elevator plus 320 steps to go up.
 |
| What Else? Just keep Queuing, Queuing, Queuing |
 |
| Finally getting nearer |
 |
| Finally get through the security check! |
 |
| Here we go! |
 |
| Finally got the change to take a picture of Piazza San Pietro from Basilica |
 |
| Inside the Basilica |
 |
| Look at this! |
 |
| The Alter |
 |
| More Masterpiece |
 |
| Cupids? |
 |
| Look at the size of this door! |
 |
| Leaving the Basilica |
 |
| Goodbye Basilica di San Pietro |
We left Piazza San Pietro and walked straight towards
Castel Sant’ Angelo which were surprising near. We simply took a picture of it
from afar as we were really too crippled to go up. We walked across the Fiume
Tevere on Via S. Pio X and found LIKEAT Roma Sandwich Shop (Ranked 3 in
Tripadvisor in Rome). The owner was really friendly and recommended us today’s
special (something with lots of mushrooms) and their famous Porchetta sandwich.
OMG! We loved their porchetta sandwich! It was really yummy!!!
 |
| Castel Sant' Angelo |
 |
| Basilica di San Pietro from afar |
 |
| Castel Sant' Angelo from across the River |
 |
| Let's eat some Sandwich! |
 |
| Lots of ingredients there! |
 |
| Beer & Sandwich! |
 |
| Yummy Yummy! |
 |
| Today Special - Lots of Mushrooms |
 |
| Porchetta Sandwich! YUM YUM!!!! |
 |
| Complimentary Vegetarian Bruschetta |
After our early dinner, we walked along Fiume Tevere
before reaching Piazza del Popolo with a prominent Egyptian obelisk in the
middle. Lots of people there just chilled and people watching. We then
continued on to Flaminio station to grab a metro to Spagna station to see the
Piazza di Spagna which was renowned for its spectacular steps.
 |
| Lots of Beautiful Buildings along the way |
 |
| Castel Sant' Angelo from St. Angelo Bridge |
 |
| Random Building |
 |
| Along the River |
 |
| Another Beautiful Building |
 |
| Nice View of Basilica di San Pietro across the river |
 |
| Stunning huh? |
 |
| Let's take a picture! |
 |
| Wow! Even a Random Church is amazing! |
 |
| I think this is some museum... |
 |
| At Piazza del Popolo |
 |
| The Egyption Obelisk |
 |
| Fountain & Church at the back |
 |
| Another View of Piazza del Popolo |
As usual, we were disappointed again in Italy as it was
in RESTORATION again!!! WTF???!!!!!!!!! @R#@^%#@%!!!! There were a myriad of
shops near the Piazza with lots of top fashion brands but we were just too
tired to go into any after a long long day… We bought some takeout pasta (Bacon
and cream) from Pastificio before taking the metro back to Repubblica station
to get to our hotel. But of course not before grabbing some gelato from the Gelateria
across the hotel – we did not like it though as it was simply too sweet. We
would be leaving Rome to Naples tomorrow morning thus this ended our unforgettable
“Queuing Day” in Rome.
 |
| This is Spagna!!! |
 |
| Hoping to see something like this! |
 |
| End up - this is the fountain! |
 |
| The Spanish Steps with Church of Trinita dei Monti under RESTORATION behind!!! |
 |
| Can i sue the Italian Government? |
 |
| At Pasta Fresca |
 |
| Our Supper! |
 |
| Overly Sweet Gelato |
Next Day (From Brothel of Pompeii to Conquering Mt Vesuvius)
No comments:
Post a Comment