Well, the signs are misleading! Thanks to regular blog-reader, Max, we decided to go visit the caverns and my! what a great surprise. The cave is very much a living cave with fabulous formations. It’s been a nice, wet winter too, so there were some great water flows, making for just a magical place. The cave costs about 18 dollars per person to tour and takes about an hour. It’s well worth it if you’re in the area. Beautiful formations, knowledgeable guides and a lot of fun.

As always, click on the thumbnails to view a larger picture.

Scavi Tour: This was the best tour and quite possibly made the Rome trip worth it all by itself. In retrospect, probably because we had the most time there, Rome, Italy was the best stop on the trip.

Glandeves Saffron: I actually obtained the saffron *before* the trip and planned to buy more while there. I also *planned* to stop in Entravaux, France, near where this saffron is grown/sold. As you know from the summary, we weren’t able to make the train there so I didn’t get to meet the delightful Lucile in person. However, we emailed back and forth, exchanged recipes–and she sent me saffron and a wonderful white tea to try. I highly recommend both the tea and the saffron. Despite several tries, I’m fairly certain we never ate saffron while in Europe, which was a shame. We also didn’t find it for sale, another shame. Luckily, I found Lucile and her shop on the internet or we would have missed that part of the experience. I just made saffron chicken rice yesterday–yum! Highly recommended. The saffron was, by far, my best souvenir from the trip!!!

If I return to Spain, I’ll try the northern areas (and pack emergency food just in case…)

In the past, I didn’t think I’d ever return to Nice, France. This time, I learned that I haven’t seen all the places worth seeing. I’d definitely head into the alps if I land there again. As for Italy, I’m glad I went, but with the hustle and bustle and the expense, I don’t see myself in a hurry to return to either Florence or Rome. Perhaps the Cinque Terre will call me out one day, but it better hurry. I’m not getting any younger!

For now, I think the mountains are calling me. Or maybe Hawaii. Yellowstone. The coast of California…so many places to dream about!!!

If you will be stopping in Malaga, Spain for any reason, get this guide. As a walking guide, it needs more street names or more anchors so that walkers know for certain they are on the right path, but as a preparation guide–choosing what you want to see and do–it’s an absolute necessity. Once in Malaga, stop at a tourist kiosk and get a city map–the guide does not include one and a map of some kind will help you stay oriented.

If you are arriving on a cruise and the cruise ship says it will be in port at 5 a.m. be aware that they are not likely to let you off the cruise until 6 or well-after. Also be aware that when you do get off, the disembarking procedures are a bit on the chaotic side–do *not* schedule a flight out of Malaga in the morning. You aren’t likely to make the flight. There were a number of passengers frantically trying to get off the ship, find their luggage (you are not allowed to take your own luggage off–it gets put into a giant holding area where you get to hunt it down), find a taxi (there were not enough in port that early in the morning) and try to make the airport by 9. Not a good time.

We arrived in the dark–there went plans to stroll to breakfast. We got a taxi, which took us to our beautiful, reasonably price hotel, Hotel Villa Guadalupe, up on a hill overlooking parts of the city. No one was at the front desk at that early hour (7:30ish?) but the taxi driver very nicely called the number on the buzzer and the owner soon arrived. We got our luggage checked in, but our room had not yet been vacated/cleaned, so we sat in the lobby for a while (exhausted) and had coffee and rolls provided by the hotel. The hotel staff was splendid the entire trip. If you are able to walk steep inclines to reach the hotel from the bus stop (or willing to spend money on taxis) I *highly* recommend this hotel.

After our rest, we took a bus back into the main part of Malaga. The walk to the bus stop was about 1/3 to 1/4 of a mile *straight* downhill, through back streets. This was fine for me, but a bit of a difficult walk for mom and her bum knee. We managed. The bus was about 1.10 euro per person; you pay the driver when you get on. Make a careful note of the area–the bus did not stop exactly on the other side of the street from the bus stop (the stop was actually several yards earlier, thus making it a bit difficult to figure out.) The driver could not help us because the hotel is located in a neighborhood; it’s not a “main” location that a bus driver will know.

Well worth seeing was the Alcazaba, an 11the century castle built by the moors. It’s not expensive to tour (self-guided for a few euros) and there are a few museum pieces inside. The courtyards/buildings are very interesting and the whole tour is very pretty. As with most places we were at in Europe, there are few signs describing what you are looking at. In this case, the footsteps guide mentioned above provided nice background information on the building.

The Malaga Cathedral (one picture above) was a very nice church to visit–gorgeous from both the inside and outside; well-worth the small fee.

We wanted to see Flamenco dancing while in Spain–but unfortunately such dancing starts very late: 11:30 or so. We were told by one place that it started at 9:30–so we showed up for dinner at 9, but then found out *piano* music started at 9:30. The flamenco wasn’t until 11:30 or so. We didn’t stay. The food was awful, and we felt we had been misled when we asked at the establishment earlier in the day. My Spanish isn’t perfect, but “Flamenco” and “What time does it start?” is not really close to “Piano music.”

That brings us to the other huge disappointment in Malaga: Food. In my defense, let me say that I did my homework before going. I researched, got recommendations and even cooked paella for myself. In one case, a recommended place was not open on weekends, so we had to just pick a place nearby because siesta was nearing, and we knew a lot of places would be closing for a few hours. We supposedly ordered meatballs in tomato sauce, and chicken with fries. What we got was bread balls in tomato sauce, and chicken and fries sitting in an inch of oil. I won’t dwell on it, but if you go to Spain, plan on finding a grocery and getting snacks until you can get decent recommendations (which were generally in a much, much higher price range. For good food, it appeared you had to spend fifteen euros or more per person and even then there was no guarantee you’d like it–fried food was plentiful and veggies relatively uncommon.) We did order paella at a restaurant, but I don’t believe any saffron was used. Methinks that tourism has made restaurants a tad too eager to take advantage of tourists–tomato sauce with very fishy-fish was served on an outside patio that featured stray cats in the bushes and at least one beggar chased off by our waiter. Stray cats and beggars were quite common in the city.

I understand that “tapas” is the proper way to eat the evening meal–strolling around various establishments sampling snack-sized portions. My mother did order tapas for her dinner and it was of higher quality than the paella. With my parents not extremely mobile and me not being a late-night person, strolling for tapas held no appeal.

The second day, rather than fight the city crowds, we opted to hire a driver. The hotel helped us with this arrangement as I had not planned this in advance–they were wonderful, as was our driver. He took us to El Torcal, a couple of hours outside Malaga. We enjoyed the scenery on the way there and on the way back. He also picked a nice restaurant in the mountains where the food was reasonably priced and of higher quality (still a lot of fried things!) We enjoyed our day out in the countryside, but be aware that El Torcal is extremely crowded on the weekends. Hiking is more like strolling a sidewalk in a busy town–lots of people. The area is well-kept and pleasant. When we left the park, we sat in traffic for at least 40 minutes while people were trying to park alongside the road. The parking went on for at least a mile and there were buses trying to get in, cars, people walking, etc.

All in all, I wish that we had eaten at least once at our hotel. It was expensive, but I suspect the food would have been good. There were two or three museums mentioned in the guide that I would also have liked to see had there been more time. Some places were closed on weekends (the bull fighting museum) at that time of year. To see a bull fight, we could have hired a driver or caught a shuttle bus to a nearby town (there were none in Malaga while we were visiting.) I wasn’t particularly interested in bull fighting (read: Did *not* want to go under any circumstances) but the hotel would have helped us find a way to see one had we wanted to find one. The fights ran about 50 euros per person and generally included some flamenco dancing from what I understand.

There was someone at the ticket machine to help us purchase the correct ticket (Always a nice feature when train stations are aware a ship is coming in and have someone around to offer assistance!) We learned that using a credit card would result in a slightly higher fee so we used cash. We had a little trouble locating the correct track, but kept asking and people kept pointing!

The train ride itself was nothing particularly special. We missed getting off at our correct stop. We wanted to get off, but the doors didn’t open. We did not know we had to press a button to have the doors open–apparently not too many people get off at the first Montserrat stop–the one with the cable car ride up the mountain (as opposed to the train ride up the mountain at the next stop.) The ticket we had purchased was not interchangeable so we had to catch a very short train back to the first stop and then walk a short distance to the cable car station to the get cable car.

The cable car ride was very nice–good views of the river, the mountains, the works. On the way up, we could see the “stations of the cross” — spots along a mountain trail where various monuments had been set up. Oooh, how I wish we could have hiked that trail, but with mom’s bum knee, we settled for touring the church and then taking another mountain train all the way to the peak. There were more trails up there. Dad and I hiked a sort distance along one of them to check out the overview. Again–we would have liked to have hiked, but in this case, we decided it make more sense to head back to Barcelona to see some of the city.

We regretted that decision later. Barcelona is much like any big European city. Yes, there are things to see; lots of shopping along Las Ramblas–lots of people and generic, overpriced tourist goods. We struggled to find anything worth buying. We went to the famous Barcelona market, but it was almost entirely food items–uncooked and for those staying with a stove/kitchen. It too was crowded and not exactly a pleasant stroll. I had hoped to buy some Spanish olive oil and some of the famous sheep’s cheese (like a Romano). I didn’t see the olive oil. The cheese was more expensive than the imported Spanish cheese I can buy in my local grocery–by a large enough dollar amount, that I passed.

We scurried about to see one or two churches from the outside and then caught a taxi back to the ship. We all agreed that staying at Montserrat for a few extra hours would have been better. If you go to Barcelona and you’ve already seen your fill of monuments/churches, take a tour to Montserrat–or head north. I understand a couple of hours north of Barcelona there are some wonderful coastal towns and coastline. More research is required of course–if you’re on a cruise, you only have so many hours, so you’ll want to make sure that you can get to and from wherever you go in enough time to enjoy yourself. I heartily recommend Montserrat. It was easy to get to by train, cheap (about 20 euros round trip per person and it included the entire train ride–cable car–and peak train.) It was very nice to be outdoors and Montserrat is quite beautiful.

I won’t go into boring detail, but getting the tickets was a disorganized mess–and the first passengers off didn’t happen until just after 8 in the morning. For those of us planning our own day, this was rather later than I needed/hoped to be off. The other confusion was that “VilleFranche” is actually about 40 minutes from Nice by bus. It’s also about 30 to 40 minutes to Monaco. This was not at all clear until after we were onboard the cruise ship because when looking at the cruise itinerary, it was always listed as Villefranche (Nice.) Silly me, I assumed this meant that they were the same, very close or a shared port of some sort.

I had planned to take the Train de Pignas to Entrevaux for the day. (The train goes further, but it runs two hours apart and there is no other way back to Nice the further you go. Entrevaux was actually pushing things. If something happened to the train–we missed it or it stopped running–we would have had to take a taxi to Puget-Theniers and catch a bus to Nice.) At any rate, with the late dis-embarking and a bus ride into Nice, there was no way to make the correct train.

Even with plan B, the cruise could have made our life easier by telling us the name of the bus stop at Villefranche (this helps on the way back), providing an accurate and detailed map of how to get to the bus stop (it’s a good ways up a winding hillside through a few different streets.) Everything was doable, but the lack of information was noticeable and extremely annoying. I had some idea of the bus information because I had assumed we would need to take a bus to the train station. Of course, we didn’t dock at the bus station I thought we would, but that was not a major deal.

We took the bus into Nice and took another bus (bus 400) out to St. Paul de Vence. This was plan B–more touristy than Entrevaux (which, by the way, would be a great trip if the train ran more often so as to accommodate us tourists!!!) but a lot cheaper and better than many of the other things to do!

We made it to the main train station without a problem. It didn’t take long to figure out the bus to St. Paul. Each trip cost only one euro per person (each way). You can pay the driver as you get on the bus. The ride to St. Paul de Vence wandered through Nice, along the coast a bit and up into the mountains. We had to ask the bus driver to tell us when we were at the correct stop in de Vence–hint: Look for the old castle/citadel as the bus is climbing through the mountains. The bus stop isn’t right at the fortress, but you’ll get an idea when you’re close and you can ask for the de Vence (citadel) stop. It’s a little confusing because it isn’t end of the line, and I couldn’t figure out if there was another town called “St. Paul” after “St. Paul de Vence.” I wasn’t even sure what to look for in de Vence, but the bus driver was great. He told us when to get off and then it was merely a matter of wandering around until we figured out where the castle was located (fairly close to the bus stop–just up the hill a ways).

The Citadel is very much a tourist attraction, but we were lucky; there weren’t many people that day. Prices for the art, clothes, perfumes, spices and food are high, but the old citadel is a wonderful example of an old French town hanging on the side of a mountain. I understand that Eze, another what-used-to-be small town, is similar. We didn’t go there and it is closer to the docking area so there were likely more tourists. Either one probably provides a touristy sample of the towns that are further back in the Alps. (We were able to drive to such towns on a previous visit. Getting a car in Nice is not worth dealing with the horrendous and dangerous traffic, but if you have time, taking a bus or train around is very nice. The car was great once we were outside of Nice, but again, not really worth the stress of the incredible traffic. We aren’t likely to do it again. Ever.)

So here are some pictures from the lovely citadel:

Nice is a huge city; difficult to get around unless you are very good with the bus system. You can waste a lot of time trying to get to the beach (which is a rock beach, not a sand beach) or the old town area. Old town area has a market most mornings and is very nice–but touristy. And expensive. The tour from the cruise will take you to Eze, Monaco or St. Paul de Vence, but they are priced at 100 or more per person. We did both St. Paul de Vence and Monaco for about 4 euros per person. (Warning: To get into the Monte Carlo Casino, there is a ten Euro charge. You must have your passport. There are dress codes for most of the high-end casinos. The casinos are beautiful buildings both inside and out. They are along beautiful (crowded) coastline.)

The ultimate tour would be to hire a driver to go back into the Alps, but drivers I contacted started at around 300-400 euros per vehicle. If I were going again, I’d try for the train I mentioned above, or even try taking a bus back into some of those smaller alpine towns.

I tried to find a private driver to no avail. I think the cheapest I found was 400 dollars for the day to get us to our choice of locations. This was a pretty steep cost and after figuring out just how little time there is in each port, I’m really glad we didn’t spend the money. The cruise ship did not post the times we would be let off ahead of time. That time was different in each port, which added to the stress of trying to make plans. Luckily for Florence, we planned on grabbing a taxi to the train station and then taking the train to Florence. The train left once each hour.

Finding a taxi was easy–they were waiting right outside the ship. The first driver I talked to wasn’t interested in taking the three of us to the train station–he was hoping for a day excursion to Florence and offered to take us to Florence for forty euros a piece. Of course, he intended to fill his 8 person van before leaving.

We opted for a different taxi and found another couple headed to the Livorno train station. The taxi driver gave a price rather than use the meter, but twenty euros between our two groups wasn’t likely to get any cheaper so we hopped in. The train station was a little confusing, as are all train stations. We had about a half hour to get a ticket for the hourly train to Florence and with the long line, we weren’t certain we’d make it, but we did. We never saw the little yellow machine where we were supposed to stamp our tickets, but a helpful tourist sent me back where I jammed all three tickets in and then caught up with my parents.

The train cost just under 13 euros round-trip per person. Pretty good deal. The train ended in Florence so there was no worry about when to get off. The Florence train station was rather large, confusing and unfriendly, despite an information office. The tourist office would not give train information and before we left the station, I wanted to have an understanding of where we had to go in order to catch a return train. I ended up walking around and just getting more confused so we finally headed out. The reason for the confusion cleared up later–the Florence train station doesn’t post trains/docks until 15 minutes before that train is scheduled to leave. Thus, trying to prepare ahead of time isn’t very doable.

We hit the street–or it hit us. Wow. Construction, confusion…I had a map–again the delightful MapEasy’s Guidemap to Florence, but since I didn’t have a street marker…it took a few minutes and some wasted walking to figure out where to go.

Then, we were off! Our first stop was the San Lorenzo street market, an alleyway of shops and tents with lots of leather items. It turned out to be a highpoint of the day. The guidebook said to skip it and come back later–don’t! It was by far the best market we found. Dad bought a change purse and we looked at a lot of other goodies. I staved off buying because I expected to see two other markets during the day.

We went inside the San Lorenzo church (The pictures I took didn’t come out well due to the darkness inside the church so none are posted, sorry!). We then stopped outside the famous Duomo, but frankly after all the churches and statues in Rome, we were a bit monumented out. The outside of the Duomo is spectacular, but it’s smack in the middle of busy tourist intersections and other tall buildings. The building itself is incredible (see the picture with the detail of some of the carvings on the side of the building), but there’s not enough open space to come upon it and really…get a sense of it. The surroundings are quite distracting.

I understand the real beauty of the place is inside, but there were lines and in any case, my parents could not climb any part of any tower. We made quick work of the plaza and then continued down some side roads to other churches and so forth. In hindsight, given that my parents were having a slow day we would have done just as well to stand in line and see only the Duomo. By the time we walked around for another couple of hours, they were just too tired out.

Frankly, a few hours is not the way to see Florence. We did go inside two churches. They were beautiful to be sure, but…Florence was a blur of tired walking, nice statues (the replica of David is in one of the plazas. We saw it, but didn’t realize until we were on the train on the way back that it was the Michaelangelo copy, uneducated folks that we are.) I think we would have been more awed by Florence had we not just spent three days in Rome seeing some pretty impressive monuments, churches and museums. We actually could have stayed another full hour, but we went back to the train station, got a soda and milkshake at McDonalds and spent the time figuring out which train track we needed to be at. Just for the record, milkshakes are cheaper than soda. The milkshake was one euro and the soda (Coke) two. It doesn’t matter if you get the European soda or the American one. Soda is one of the highest priced drinks. It’s cheaper to get bottled water, coffee, tea or…milkshakes!

One thing is for sure. I am glad we did not spend a lot of money on the day excursion. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably pick one or two things near the train station (such as the San Lorenzo market–the other markets were much more expensive and had fewer items. The leather school was a nice, quiet and quaint stop, but it was in no way a bargain.) We enjoyed what we saw and I would have liked to see the famous museum across the river, but it was too far to get to and I don’t think it was opened on Mondays in any case (the Palazzo Pitti).

If you are on a cruise and you take a day trip to Florence, be aware that the scenery on the train ride is not all that exciting. You are not cruising through the Tuscany countryside; you will see mostly a few backyard gardens and train stations. I think that is also the case if you take the cruise ship bus. If you want to see the countryside, you’ll want to book that tour specifically or hire a driver to take you around. I can’t say if it would be worth the price. For me, I don’t think I could see two or three hundred dollars worth of scenery in such a few short hours. Cinque Terre, Lucas and the countryside probably need to be enjoyed as leisurely day trips from a central location where you have time to explore. Cinque Terre in particular offers fishing/snorkeling trips, what looks to be great hiking opportunities and small shops and restaurants, but you’d probably have to be staying nearby to enjoy the atmosphere and all that it has to offer.

If I had to schedule this trip all over again, I’d take a train to Lucas. It’s smaller and also is supposed to have a market and a few churches worth visiting. Lucas is closer to Livorno so the walking/sightseeing would probably have been more leisurely. Of course, getting there did require a change of trains, so that would have been an added hassle to figure out. But the trains were far more reasonable than any of the tours in this port. Nothing I saw convinced me that paying the tour prices was worth it.

Anyway, on to the fountains and the Pantheon:

We didn’t eat near this particular piazza, although we did share a gelato. It ran about five dollars per scoop at the place we chose (which we were told was one of the oldest/first in the area). This area looked like it might be a bit nicer place to eat than some; the piazzas didn’t have much car traffic (traffic ran along the outer streets, but not right through). I don’t imagine prices were that great. In general at the places we did eat dinner, it cost us about 60 dollars for three people–no wine, but usually a water or soft drink. That price wouldn’t be bad, but for the most part the meals were not of such high quality that 60 dollars was a good value.

The street performers here were only occasional and stayed perfectly frozen until someone put a bit of money in the bucket. Then they might move just an arm or tilt their head in thanks–all in a nearly frozen, statue manner. In Barcelona the street actors lined the Rambas (main shopping street) and instead of standing perfectly still, there were those that did little acts, those that stood still, and some that moved around–making you keep a close eye on your wallet.

The tour must be set up and paid for a few months beforehand. It’s in high demand and the tour consists of a guide and about 12 people at a time. The catacombs are narrow, dim and thoroughly amazing.

Here’s the link to Santa Susanna’s page where I first found the info: SCAVI info I’m listing that link rather than the email because the email may change; hopefully Santa Susanna will keep up with such a change if it occurs. If you don’t find an email address there, you can leave me a message in the comments or send me an email and I’ll try to help!

NOTE: You must pay by credit card in advance, at least that was the case when I emailed! Do not miss your tour. Check in with the SCAVI office when you get to Rome so that they know you will be attending. Make sure you understand the time you need to be there, where to show up and what to wear (no shorts, no sleeveless, comfortable walking shoes). They run numerous tours through there every day except Sundays and holidays and demand is very high–with very small groups, not everyone is going to get to go. Try to schedule the tour so that if you have an airline delay in arriving, it will not interfere with the tour (one lady had such huge delays she missed both her days in Rome, but do the best you can.)

The tour was the highlight of our Rome trip. It’s not just that there is a lot of Catholic history, it’s also because it was a pagan burial ground. It is also quite likely where St. Peter was buried. It’s…spiritual. You do not have to be Catholic to feel the weight of humanity; the pagans and their rituals, the Christians trying to preserve themselves, their history, their beliefs. It touched me more because the area was a necropolis of pagans first, because in the end, we are all the same. We grieve, we hope, we pray there is something better on the other side. There’s just something sacred about burial and goodbyes, something untouchable that touches.

If you go to Rome, do your level best to take this tour. It’s worth it.

The Coliseum does need to do something about organizing the lines. The counters (five or so) are at the end of two long lines–which become a jammed mess of people as two lines turn into a crowd pushing their way to the front of the windows. The lines in our case were only about 1/2 hour long, but that wasn’t a pleasant half hour. When you do get to the window and pay–you have to fight back out through the other people waiting. There’s no aisle for those that paid to get over to the line that lets you in. How long have they been doing this?? I mean the viewing of the ruin, not the sports arena for killing animals and humans. You’d think they might have a better method.

The price was between 15 and 20 euros–I honestly do not remember because I shouted “three adults” and handed over a credit card. Whether it was 15 or 20, it was a bit on the pricey side compared to the Vatican. Supposedly the ticket works to let you in some other place(s), but I only heard that after we returned stateside. I don’t recall the tickets having any such info printed on them.

We didn’t sign up for one of the “tours” that are hawked outside the Coliseum. These tours cost about 7 to 10 euros extra, but they are interesting. I know this because we stood at the back of two different groups and listened in. Without the tour or the audio–you’ll be lost. There was one informative sign inside the Coliseum that I saw. It described a bit about the weapons/armor. The rest of the history, you’d have to guess. Luckily the tour guides didn’t care who was standing where, so we got a bit of a free education.

The history is quite interesting, as was the technology. The maze that was under the wooden/sand flooring held animals, props and elevators. The elevators were used to lift the animals (or stage-set scenery, such as palm trees) through several trap doors onto the arena floor. The spectators (and the contestants) didn’t know which trap door might open–or what it might reveal! One small section of the arena floor has been restored, as has a section of the seating area. This allows you to see what it might have looked like. The guides point out where the senator seats were located (they had seats for life so their names were carved into the stone) and where the emperor sat. The guides talked about the “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” that the emperor gave to a contestant. Apparently it is thought that a thumbs up didn’t mean “let the guy live” it meant, “kill him quickly with mercy.” Thumbs down…well that was bad news indeed. Bloodthirsty lot.

It’s actually impossible to imagine the pain and death that took place here. Despite the many tourists and the hundreds of thousands of people that have been through there since, the place is filled with shadowy ghosts. How could it not be?

The stones remember. They crumble and sift one painful grain at a time. The spectators…played their political games in the stands, thinking they were better, smarter or at least luckier than the poor animals and people that provided entertainment. They yelled, ate and celebrated. In the end, all that is left of any of of them is an etched surface and a haunted echo.

Many of the missing pieces of the Coliseum were not worn away by time–they were “harvested” by generations after the Coliseum fell into disuse. Stores were built inside at one time; other pieces were hauled away for later projects. The “disuse” was for typical reasons–money. The politics behind building and maintaining the arena tired with time and there simply wasn’t money in the coffers to continue the decadence of putting on shows. The idea of a politician putting on a show to gain favor with the businessmen and people isn’t really new; it was just more disgusting and inhumane back then.

Next time someone offers you free tickets to a game, you can know that it’s a traditional of earning favor that has gone on a long time. Hopefully whatever players you watch get to live.

In order to get a map of the place, I had to purchase the radio tour. If you don’t have the map, there are two corridors which are easily missed because they are side doors that require coming back to the main flow.

The Vatican excels in providing a few samples of some great stuff (rather than a lot of this and that ordered by, say, time-frame). They also excel in LARGE samples–large tapestries, large maps, large paintings in great halls. It’s all quite fascinating and worth the wandering, although as I’ve said in other posts and comments…the sheer number of people around you takes away a bit from the experience. It’s an orderly crowd, although I hear at the height of tourist season the guards will make sure the crowds keep moving forward, which might mean you don’t get to stay in a particular room as long as you might like (especially the Sistine Chapel.) Though I didn’t post a picture, the Vatican had one of the best preserved human mummies I’ve seen.

The mosaics in the second-to-last picture are made from tiny pieces of various colored tile, all put carefully in place to form a picture. Delicate work.

There are no pictures of the Sistine Chapel because they are not allowed, and the guard was standing next to me a large part of the time I was staring at the main painting behind the alter. :>) The Sistine is smaller than it appears on t.v. or magazines. It’s really an almost quaint chapel–it is not a grand basilica. The pictures on the walls and ceiling? Yeah, they are a wow. I read some of the history of the various paintings before going, so I enjoyed picking out the “face” of the Pope’s Master of Ceremonies, Biagio. Apparently Michelangelo didn’t like Biagio due to disparaging comments Biagio made about the painting so Michelangelo made Biagio a devil in the main painting. This sort of thing really adds personality to the whole thing (along with the fact that the flayed skin being held by St. Bartholomew is a self portrait by Michelangelo. Guess he felt pretty overworked by the whole gig.)

It’s a very nice museum, although more written information would have made it more accessible.