The Vatican
I woke up excited for my bacon and egg breakfast. You can imagine my disappointment when the guys from my Contiki tour absolutely demolished the food before I could get any. Being a bad omen, I should have suspected there was worse to come in the hours ahead.
We get on the coach and head over to the Vatican, the smallest country/city state in the world. Luckily we had a guided tour, because the line for the normal people can take up to four hours! And in this heat would be very painful indeed. We all received a one way radio and a one ear headphones so that we could hear the tour guide more easily throughout the walk.
Security was very tight to get in, with no backpack allowed and having to scan everything (including phones/wallets) plus a metal detector. My only thought was are they expecting someone to reenact the events in the Da Vinci Code? Once getting through we were exposed to giant museums full of beautiful statues, tapestries, paintings, artefacts and more.
A few things confused me though. Firstly there was a lot of Egyptian and Greek statues, nothing of which had anything to do with Christianity. Secondly, the buildings were mostly designed as pagan temples that had been transformed into churches. Finally was the amount of money that was spent on the exorbitant grandure of the place, surely there are more wholesome ways of spending the obviously limitless funds of the Catholic Church.
I took a huge amount of photos, as there was little else to do. The Sistine Chapel was pretty cool, actually everything was cool, but it was just more of the same. We got some free time to explore St Peters Chapel afterwards, but there wasn’t much time to really see all of it. At the end, we all met at the giant obelisk then across the street to a pizza place. The pizza was very nice, and you paid per gram which was a bit different. You also paid less the more you got, so we went in with a few people and got heaps.
While I was eating the pizza, I noticed a few bumps on my arms. After a closer inspection, I noticed a rash covering my arms and feet! Now it’s not that bad but I hate rashes, it doesn’t even itch but it is so annoying. After talking to some other people on the tour, it seems like the beds in the hotels are either coated in something or have something living in it as other people have the same problem. I wish I had brought my first aid kit I had when I went to China as I don’t have any anti-histamine with me.
There was an optional gelato but I opted out, trying to not eat as much junk food. I even ate some fruit and a banana when we stopped at the Contiki camping spot on our way to Venice.
About the Author
Mannan
Mannan is a software engineering enthusiast and has been madly coding since 2002. When he isn't coding he loves to travel, so you will find both of these topics on this blog.