Our Father Who Art In Heaven

We got up at the crack for our Vatican tour.  "Go early" everybody said.  Luckily we were on a tour which bypassed the 30,000 other people who had gotten there early as well.

Our uninterested guide spoke in a drony Borat accent which grated on the very core of our souls.  She spoke a couple of languages, so kudos to her, but when you hear English spoken with all the intonations in the wrong place, it’s actually difficult to listen to. Try it and let me know your thoughts. She repeated everything she said, coupled with the spattering of ums and ers made it to hard to concentrate on anything she was saying.

Example:  “This is the Sistine Chapel, the Sistine Chapel um um celing. The Sistine Chapel um ceiling was er completed, the ceiling was completed in um er 1624 in 1624 Michaelangelo um Michaelangelo lived until he um er was 90 90 years 90 years um old.”

Surely guiding 101 would teach you to gauge the interest level of your group, but not this lady - who’s name we never found out.  She just looked at what she was faffing on about and talked to that, not looking at us at all.  If she had turned around even once, she would have noticed that half the group had gone to sit in the shade.  

She had us standing in front of these pictures of the Sistine Chapel for 30 minutes.  People started to peel away from the group to seek solace in the shade.  She was clearly frustrated and not enjoying her job - at all!  Lots of waiting around as there is with all group tours, but we did get to bypass the massive cue to get in - so there’s the silver lining.

You weren't allowed to speak or take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but my favourite quote of the day was Lu's on exiting said chapel.....

 “Well, I like what they’ve done there.”

This lady was in our tour group and had the best hair.  A little bit like my Kath Day-Knight wig!

I'm wondering if this was where the bowl haircut started?

Or if this was perhaps the first perm?

This is where the Pope stands (well, on the balcony behind Lu) to give his Mass every Wednesday. 

And this is where the Pope lives..... that window where the window washers are is apparently the Pope's bedroom.  As I was zooming in for this picture one of the people on our tour said "You'd better not zoom in too much in case the Pope is home doing his lunges!"

This chap is in the Swiss Guard and guards the Vatican.  You have to wonder if people in Rome, or in fact, all of Italy dream as small children to one day grow up and be part of the Swiss Guard?  I mean, the uniform alone is reason enough to dream.

This is the line that marks where Vatican City ends making it the smallest independent state in the world.  The Pope usually heads out to the summer house in August, but apparently Pope Frances decided that he didn't need this privilege because there are plenty of people in Italy and around the world who can't afford holidays.  A man for the people.  Well done Frank.