Pope-a-liscous

A trip to the Vatican basically seems to involve queuing. A very long wait to get inside and the only things around to entertain us a bunch of squalling kids and a wall. Now its lucky for that wall, because we had heard there was a little tunnel within the wall, it had been built in case of attack so the pope could escape. It wasn't a very wide tunnel and the pope would just have to be shoved to something on wheels and pushed through. Visions of that passed the time with smiles on our face. Unfortunately at no point would they let me in it. Hmpph. OK. So im not Catholic but I KNOW some Catholics. As always my contacts just don't cut it.

Basillica

Vatican City is just packed with artwork. The walls, the ceilings and after a while you stop staring so much. I have no idea how long it would take to really look at them all, but im guessing its longer than I had.

Inside

Aside from the Pope, the highlight of Vatican City is the Sistine Chapel. I had forgotten my glasses so I had to keep stealing Tracey's, she is slightly blinder than me so rarely leaves home without them. In the Chapel they ask you not to take photos with flashes, obviously so as not to destroy the paint. There are signs on the wall and there are people walking around who's sole job is keep us tourists in line, I cant imagine how annoying it is to say all day "no flash" "no flash" but that's what they did. Tracey, Brad, Emily and I just glared at many people and their flashes, hoping their photos will be ruined by our sour faces.

At the end of the walk through the Vatican is a post office! No doubt a tidy little revenue earner, as we all queued again to use it. The lure of a Vatican City postmark too much to resist, of course we didn't think to send ourselves any!