We chose the Ultimate Rome because it offered both the inside of the Colosseum as well as the Sistine Chapel. Yeah, we saw both but very little of them.
We started with a very long drive to Rome. Traffic was atrocious and it took forever to get our normal sized bus into the city. We learned later there was a subway worker's strike so traffic was worse than normal for a Friday morning. Other than the major sites there is just so much cool stuff in Rome. Various Roman ruins seem to be just about everywhere in addition to more modern structures.
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After that we were on our own for a quick lunch, we picked a sit down restaurant across the street where we could continue to enjoy the view of the Colosseum in air conditioned comfort.
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Finally we headed to the Vatican to see the Vatican Museum and then a visit to the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museum is jam packed with stuff. First was the statue area, where tons of statues were lined up seemingly arbitrarily. Then the tapestry area, where the tapestries were arranged in some sort of order. And finally the paintings. All very impressive but we definitely got the sense that this only the beginning of the collection.
We then ducked out a back staircase down some stairs then found ourselves in the Sistine Chapel. This is where you're supposed to be silent and not to take pictures. Well, people were chatting out loud and the guards were constantly catching someone trying to sneak a picture. *SIGH*
Honestly, it was nice but for me it didn't live up to the hype. I guess I was expecting some absolutely amazing work of art and yeah, it was big but I definitely wasn't wowed. It's true, every inch of wall was painted and yeah, there was a lot of detail. Maybe the dim lighting just didn't allow me to get the full impact.
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We left through the St. Mark's Square and made a quick stop at a Vatican Gift Shop before the long bus ride back to the ship.
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