Finally, Christmas holidays were over, so we could do some sightseeing as real tourists! We had decided to get up early and head down to the Vatican City straight after our crappy hotel breakfast, in the hopes that we would not have to queue up for too long. The two main attractions there were of course the Vatican Museum, where Michelangelo's original "Creation" painting can be seen in the Sistine Chapel as well as his "Last Judgement" painting, and St. Peters Basilica. I had not been inside the Vatican Museum the last time, so had wanted to go in this time.
We arrived there around 09:15hrs, and the Vatican Museum wasn't going to be opened until 10:00hrs. But my goodness! I had never in my life seen such a long queue before! The closest would be the queue to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but this one takes the cake!
Check it out:
This not even the whole queue. There are still 2 sections of it not captured on this clip!
Here's 1 of the missing sections of the queue not shown in the video clip. The other missing section is as long as this one, so now you get the full picture.
Makes you wonder what time these people actually started queuing up, huh? I mean, if this was the queue at 09:15hrs and the museum opened only at 10:00hrs, then the first people in line must have been there since 07:00hrs??? Hard core. Unfortunately, Michelangelo's works in this museum were not part of my "Things to see before I die" list, so no way was I going to waste 2 or 3 hours of my life queuing up here!
We did have some people offering guided tours to us though, and the biggest selling point was "You get to skip the queue!" But this came at a high price of €40 per person, even though it included the entrance ticket which costed €15....so no. When you had almost become a beggar recently (see Day I in Rome post), you would tend to spend money a bit more wisely ;o).
Oh, speaking of that, our Danish bank did actually call us when we arrived at the Vatican Museum! Apparently, Martin's Visa card had gone over the 20,000 DKK (S$5000) limit within the month, and we had just a few days left before it resets again. We knew that there's a limit with Visa, but seriously, I thought it was only when you're using it overseas that you have this limit! We did use his card to pay our 19,000 DKK air tickets to Singapore on 28 Nov online, but this was done IN DENMARK to a DANISH tour agency, so I don't understand why it would affect this 20,000 DKK limit.
On Jyske Banks's website, it says clearly: "I udlandet kan du maksimalt hæve 20.000 kr. på 30 dage." which translates to "You can use a maximum of 20,000 kr within 30 days when overseas." so see? I was right!
Anyway, the bank told us that they had called Visa to reset our card so that we could use it again, but by then, we had more than enough cash on us so we didn't need to use the Visa card after all.
Now back to our sightseeing... . .Since the Vatican Museum was out of the question, we decided to just go straight to St. Peter's Basilica instead. After all, if EVERYONE was queuing up for the Vatican Museum, then chances were, hardly anyone's trying to get into the basilica, right? Well yes....I was quite right, because it took us less than 10 mins before we were done queuing up at the security check point there. On top of that, it was of course free entry to the basilica, so no need to spend money there :o). Only needed to pay to get up to the top of the dome, but that was not an extravagent spending, especially since we had decided not to take the elevator up.
Here are pics:
The grandness of St. Peters Basilica
Not so many people...yet.
Michelangelo's Pietà behind bullet-proof glass.
Touching St. Peter's worn down foot.
The big nave inside the basilica
Under the dome, painted by Michelangelo too. The biggest dome in the world, apparently.
Martin saw the light!
Climbing up around 537 steps to the top of St. Peter's Basilica dome + cupola. Yeah, I was really into leg+butt work-outs in Rome. But seriously, if you take the elevator, you will STILL have to walk up the last 320 steps, so what's the point of paying extra for that, right?
View from the top of the dome.
I present to you, Rome!
Yup, that was the dome we were up on.
Drinking holy water in the Vatican City. Well, at least I assume it was holy water.
I could jump in and bathe in holy water too!
I guess by the time we were done at St. Peters Basilica, the folks who were queuing up for the Vatican Museum were done there too, so they then came to invade the basilica.
Well, when we walked back to the Vatican Museum, the queue was half the length than before, but it would still take a good 40mins or so to get in, and if the guidebook was right, the museum closed early during winter. Therefore, we would only have had ½hr or so to see everything. Still not worth the €15 entrance fee, so we went to get some "gelato" (Italian for "ice-cream") instead. Yeah, yeah, I know it was winter time, but do you not see the clear blue sky???
