We had a wonderful private tour with Francesco in Vatican City, the smallest country in the world. It doesn’t belong to Italy, even though Italy would love to own it. He was so passionate about his job, much preferring to do private tours than group ones, where you can’t form any bond with the clients. First he took us through the Vatican Museum, where hardly anyone goes, then the Sistine Chapel, and finally St. Peter’s Basilica. Before beginning he showed us lovely photos from a book about the Sistene Chapel, explaining what Michelangelo did (both painting and architecture) and how his style evolved. He used to paint small detailed pictures on the ceilings, and then realized that they would be hard for people to see, so he painted them much larger later in his life. It was the pope who asked him to do this big job for the Chapel in the 1500’s, and it took nearly 4 years to complete. Luckily the pope didn’t pass away until a few months after the job was complete. Michelangelo first resisted taking on the painting job, since he considered himself to be a sculpture, but since the pope asked him, he couldn’t say ‘no.’ After Michelangelo died, another painter was hired to be a ‘trouser painter,’ in other words to cover up the exposed private parts of the figures in his paintings. Even the pope didn’t have the heart to ask Michelangelo to do this! We were told that there was to be silence in the Chapel (even the guides weren’t to talk) but people did anyway, so periodically someone announced ‘silence’ and ‘no photos.’ One lady was given a scarf to put over her shoulders, as they weren’t supposed to be bare. St. Peter’s Basilica was the grand finale of the tour. It was all truly magnificent!
On our own now, we tried to see the Pantheon, but sadly it was closed, due to the bank holiday. We had lunch at a great restaurant nearby that Francesco recommended. We ordered two different kinds of GF pizza to share. One had pears, Gorgonzola and Parmesan, and the other had smoked cheese, artichokes and Parmesan. We both liked the first one best, but they were both delicious! I’m amazed at the relative ease of getting gluten free food here, and it’s good too. Michael’s comment was “is it possible to get bad food here?”
Next we saw the Piazza Navona, which has fountains, cafes, live music and lots of things to buy. From there we saw the Trevi Fountain, which was amazing but of course very crowded. People were considerate of my wheelchair however, unlike in Naples! Our hotel seemed like a short walk, but we must have taken a wrong turn, so poor Michael did more walking and pushing of me than he should have. After asking several people, we finally got there.
We were so lucky with the weather again on this trip, except for having to miss Ponza island. That was the only bad weather that we had. We were especially lucky in Rome, as they’ve a lot of rain up to when we arrived yesterday.
We’re flying home at 6:30 am tomorrow morning. We have a 3 1/2 hour layover in Amsterdam, and then the long flight to Calgary. It’s been a wonderful trip!
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