At last the walls of the Vatican Museum are breached and a Gilligan's tour of Rome is taken

Wednesday January 29, 2014

Third attempt at the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel has been met with success.  We pre bought our tickets.  The cost was an extra 4 Euros per ticket, not huge, but if the lines were long or it was raining, as it has been at some point almost daily since we arrived, it meant we could breeze right past everyone else to he head of the line.  Neither of those were an issue this morning.  The line was minimal and there was no rain, but it was still good not to have to wait.

Our day started out with a subway ride, the first for Cheryl and Rheaume.  It was a quick 25 minute trip to the Vatican Museums.  The subway was packed to the limit for a good portion of the trip, with people heading to work and when we first got on the train car, we, Rheaume, Bill and I, had a brief moment of panic thinking Cheryl had not been able to get on the car and was left behind.  After attempting to open the door to see if she was still on the platform, we noticed her in front of one of the doors further down the car.  Whew!! that was a close one!

Today would prove to be a long day.  To see all that the Museums have to offer takes a full day.  We saw most, but not all, and because we had not picked up a map when we entered, we ended up having to do a bit of back tracking.  It was a day of up and down stairs, we certainly are getting our exercise and Cheryl has commented on how much tighter her calves are getting.

So here are some pictures from today's visit from the Egyptian collection - many items are in glass cases so I apologize for the glare and reflections present in some of the photos

A mummy in a sarcophagus

A sarcophagus showing how they were decorated - the insides were also richly decorated

These small sarcophagi, usually on a wooden base held a death scroll, which
told the life story of the person buried.
We saw some scrolls that were up to six feet long

this was a face mask with just the head and shoulders

Anubis, one of the gods worshiped

various animals were worshipped as gods this one a lion

this one a bull

Within the tombs were many, many of these little sarcophagi, no more than about 6 inches high,
all with little figurines, wrapped the same as the mummy, inside.
It is thought that these represented all the workers that the person buried would
need to assist them in the life "on the other side"

some of the many and varied figurines found inside the tiny sarcophagi

animal figurines also found

 Various other small figurines included in the burial site all intended to help the person in the after life

Next came the marbles and statues

Then came the hall of tapestries with tapestries made in Belgium in the 15th century

 And of course, don't forget to always look up - you never know what you will see

In the Hall of Maps

 Out side in a courtyard - "Sphere within a Sphere"

Final stop of the day was the Raphael Rooms with paintings done by him and his followers

The Sistine Chapel was also visited, but no photographs allowed.


Next came our Gilligan's Island tour of the city.  We got on a bus to get back to the apartment, BUT it was going the wrong way, and what a distance it was!  Two hours after we left the Museums we finally got home, and when I plotted the bus trip afterwards it looks like we travelled about 24 miles - we could have walked home in less time!!!  But is was raining heavily, so the bus was a godsend and we got to see areas of Rome that we would never have seen otherwise.