The Vatican

The only major tourist excursion I've gone on so far was a trip to the Vatican in Rome. It was Al's birthday (one of the Blue Men,) and he wanted to go. My favorite part was that I was told around midnight that this trip was happening the next day and to meet up at 8:45. Anyway, the pope give his weekly address on Wednesdays, which happens to be the day that we port in Civitavecchia and Rome is a 45 minute train ride away. Since this was my first time off the ship, I let everyone else take the lead. One of our wardrobe girls, Katie, goes into Rome all the time and has been on the ship the longest of those of us that went. Elaine, one of the Legends dancers knew how to do everything too. Al, Diane (Blue Man props girl,) Greg (Blue Man music director & zither player,) and I pretty much let them take the lead in getting us on the right train, which we managed.

 Benny is up there under that tent. We were pretty far back because we got there after he had begun and didn't really go to see/hear him speak. We just wanted to go to the museum.

 Nameless mummy. It's ridiculous how perfectly the body is preserved though. 

There were lots of lion statues in the animal statue room, but this was was the coolest.  We named him Aslan.

Even the ceilings were something to look at! It was complete sensory overload, I had no idea where I should look or what I should take pictures of.

Tour groups were awful! The leaders would stop the whole group right in the middle of the corridors and block traffic. We managed to get around most of them though. This entire hallway was just one massive collection of art on the ceiling, it was difficult to walk and look at them and not bump into or step on anyone.

Since the Sistine Chapel is a sacred place, pictures are not allowed, knees and shoulders have to be covered, and you're supposed to be silent. It was crazy being in there, I never thought I'd get the chance, but my second week on the ship I ended up at one of the places I've always wanted to see. It wasn't anything like I expected, the colors were much more vibrant that I thought they'd be. It was really a great experience simply for the art and history there since I have no religious ties to it. Anyway, this spiral staircase was how you left the museum, it was just a cool shot that I liked.

Some castle, not sure what it's significance or story is, but hey it's a castle a few blocks from the Vatican! Al said he thinks they hid a pope there once. That's all I've got. 

We had lunch in a little cafe, it was pretty good nothing extraordinary to report about that. So yeah, that was my trip to the Vatican :-)