Day 40: They make you work for it!

It was our only full day in Rome, so we aimed to make the best of it. We woke up and had a quick breakfast at our accommodation.  We went out onto the small terrace to eat.  This was very difficult for Ed as there was a great view of the rush hour traffic on the busy road outside our hotel.  There were just so many Fiats to spot that eating breakfast was only a minor concern for him.  We think it may have been the highlight of the day above everything else we were to see! 

We then got on a tram right at our front door which would take us on a 45 minute trip (around the long way) to The Vatican.  Even at 8:30am it was stinking hot.  The tram was standing room only and we could all feel the sweat literally dripping off us and the other 3,639 people on our tram!! To recover we had to all get slushies.

When we arrived at St Peter' we got into the queue.  Luckily it was only 30 minutes long.  The kids could play on devices in the shade while we waited.  It was hard to miss the irony of being in St Peter's square and the kids wanting to play minecraft.

Once inside we were hoping to see the Sistine Chapel most of all.  Oops, wrong queue, that is around the corner about 1km away.  So we joined the throng inside St Peter's where we saw Michaelangelo carvings, tombs of popes an enormous church building, millions of people and some great mosaics. 

 Kate and Dad braved the climb to the top of the dome in 35 degree heat to get a great view of Rome. 

Once down we started to regroup again and grabbed a quick lunch.  We sat and got some cheap sandwiches and drinks.  However, as we were to find out, if you had the audacity to sit down to eat and drink the drinks double in price!! We had $6 cans of coke and a $10 bottle of powerade!  We were not impressed, and Sal was pushed over the edge when our change all came in 1 & 2 cent coins.  It was the first time any of us got really angry at something on our trip! They make you work for it here.

It was a short stroll to the Sistine chapel while trying to explain some of the finer differences between Catholic and Protestant theology.  We walked into the Vatican Museum with no queue. Yay! We thought it interesting that the gift shops and free entry before seemed nothing like many of the other attractions we have seen. Someone said "the Catholic Church hasn't worked out how to make money yet." At the time the comment sat a little strangely.  Then we paid for entry to the Sistine Chapel and museum.  They have worked out how to make money so it seems.  And as we walked past all the "treasures" (their words not ours) they have accumulated for 2000 years we realised they had been making money and making people work for it for a very long time.  

It was a long walk (purgatory?) past thousands of year's worth of treasure to the "holy" Sistine chapel.  Again like Catholic salvation, they made you work for it.  Along corridors of ancient treasures stolen or borrowed from other cultures, past well manicured gardens, up and down stairs to the chapel itself. It was truly remarkable to see the artworks of legend, and it was again very impressive. But still a long way from the humbly and lowly carpenter we all love.

It was then onto Rome's transport system again, this time the metro.  It was air conditioned, thank goodness,but the heat was wearing us out or making us crazy.

We then tried to do some shopping, but much to our dismay, many of the shops were shut at 3pm on a Thursday.  Why? Who knows, this is Rome. Sal was not able to buy her Roman sandals she had wanted to. :-(

Sal and holly got an extra shopping expedition but again it yielded little.

We then packed our bags for the flight to Hong Kong tomorrow before our last supper in Roma. It was a perfect meal.  A recent summer storm made the streets look almost clean, and we found a lovely little restaurant near the hotel in San Lorenzo.  It was a good meal to end our trip on. All the meals, and desserts we ordered were simple and delicious.

Goodbye Roma, you have delighted, intrigued, confused, bewildered, heated, angered and humbled us.