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so then i was in vatican city...smallest country in the world...right in the heart of rome...it was a mad dash to see what i wanted to see here...lined up for close to two hours to get into the vatican museum...it was a special sunday so entry was free! consequently that meant lines were HUGE! it started to rain but had an umbrella...on reflection, may have been worth the 20 euros to get a special group entrance ticket in...apparently the pope or someone important drove past while we were in line...go figure...managed to shove some rude italian women out of the way in the quest to get to the museums in time (think they shut early arvo)...but that led to a frenzy of italian gesticulations...hey we were in the right - they pushed in first...stoopid italian lack of organisation...little strings placed on here and there hardly made the crowd behave, and just where were the bouncers...the swiss guard were busy looking pretty...wish we could have understood italian though - that may have made for amusing listening...certainly a blonde companion was scorned dramatically - there may have even been a touch of pushing from the senior citizens...
so then we were in...i took off on a mad dash to see the sistine chapel...what a maze to get through first, although it was all amazing (ha!)...old maps, wall hangings, busts (ha!)...many beautiful paintings prior to the sistine chapel - dont know why it gets the biggest rap to be honest...its smaller than i imagined and much more intricate...not just the fingertips touching but much, much more...and what is it with people being able to take photos all over here???!!!!! massive, massive museums...the pope must truly be absolutely loaded...missed the secret group door to st peters so had to line up again...hmph...
but first, i saw il papa speak! yup, he addressed us all around 1 pm from his little window with the red curtain thrown out...not that i could understand a word he was saying but i still felt blessed :) as he finished up his (no doubt important) speech which was broadcast on a speaker system and a big widescreen tv (the words), i slunk off to st peters, as the crowd had died in order to look up at the pope...yay, in quickly...im afraid i raced through st peters (so many churches id seen...they were all starting to look the same - may have missed michelangelos famous sculputure here - ho hum) and on down to the crypt of the popes...fascinating...all these dudes hanging in tombs underneath the church...then the bells rang and it was time to rush to the roman forum...
in between times i had pizza slices...you know i dont think their pizzas are as good as ours...in fact their pizzas and pasta in general seem to lack flavour - theyre way more simplistic than ours and the pizza base seems to often be an almost foccacia like thing...and only one or two ingredients to either pizza or pasta...i prefer lots of stuff in mine! although theirs is perhaps better for you :) cant remember if i mentioned i tried gelati here too though...again was good, but no better than what we get in one of those fancy australian shops...managed to leave my souvenir plate of the sistine chapel in the pizza shop but the italian lady saved it for me and gave it back to me with broken italian/english when i returned...
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