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This was my absolute favourite museum from the whole trip. The museums that we saw in Austria were very good and the Austrians definitely have a flare in presenting information in a very entertaining manner. The only museum we visited in Venice was the Palazzo Ducale which was quite nice but unfortunately photography was not allowed, so that was a bit disappointing.
In Florence, I found the Uffizi Gallery to be quite over-rated especially given the queuing time involved in order to get in. The queues for the Vatican Museums were equally long, but it seemed to be much faster moving than at the Uffizi. But what really caught my interest here in the Vatican Museums was the immersive nature of the whole experience - the art on display was everywhere (literally) !! Magnificent Renaissance-era frescoes adorned the walls and ceilings of practically every room of the Museum.
Again, we were pressed for time as we had planned on visiting St Peter's Basilica this afternoon. So, it was a mad rush through the museum, trying to soak up the centuries of art and history in 2 hours- approximately 36 seconds of attention given to every year of cultural history ! (120 minutes / 2000 years). :) It was impossible to fully appreciate the content of the Museum in such a short period of time.
The Sistine Chapel is obviously the key attraction here. The Chapel is actually at the very end of the Museum. In order to try and avoid the inevitable queuing that would occur to get into the Chapel, we decided to "fast forward" our tour of the Museum by skipping everything between the entrance and the Chapel, and we made a bee line for Michelangelo's masterpiece. The plan was to then come back and see everything else after we had seen the chapel. The plan worked pretty well even though it required us to double-back and walk through the entire museum again later. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed within the Chapel.
Even in our haste, there were some parts of the Museum which stood out from the rest. The Raphael Rooms were thoroughly amazing.
Below the main floor of the museum is the modern art collection of the Museumj. It was interesting to walk through (I actually got lost and stumbled down there by mistake !) and appreciate the modern expressions of religious art.
One would need a whole day to fully appreciate the immense collections held in the Vatican Museums. But it is definitely a 360 degree experience to be had - even the exit stairwell exude an artistic flair !
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St Peter's Basilica
Our plan was to visit St Peter's Basilica after the Vatican Museums but to our utter disappointment, the Basilica was closed in preparation for tonight's celebrations of Pope John Paul II's 25th anniversary of his Pontification.
The best I could do was to take some photos at the fringes of the Basilica. It is only around midday but the place was already buzzing with people for the evening's service.
In mean time, Hsin Hsin thought she'd do the local cops a favour and look after their bikes for them.
6. Hsin Hsin looking after the police bikes
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Janiculum Hill
Our plans for the afternoon were scuttled by the closure of the Basilica. William suggested that we walk up to the Janiculum Hill for a view of Rome. It was a hot day and the prospects of walking up to the Hill was mulled over for a few minutes (actually about 15 minutes) before we finally decided to actually go for it.
The walk up wasn't too bad after all. The road was tree lined and the panoramic views were quite impressive.
8. The Il Vittoriano (white building) dominates the cityscape. 9. The Pantheon can be seen near the centre of this photo. It is the dome-shaped building with the flat roof.
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Pope's 25th Anniversary Service
As we descended from Janiculum Hill back towards the Vatican, there was a steady stream of people heading towards St Peter's for the Pope's celebratory church service to start in a few hours' time.
Stelia and I decided to attend the service as well while the rest of the gang called it a day and headed back to the apartment. The entire square was filled with people by the time the service started. We stayed there for an hour or so, but we decided to leave as the almost the entire service was conducted in Italian. Furthermore, we had a 6AM flight to catch tomorrow morning.
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It's Over
38,500 kilometers (from Australia), 2 countries, 5 cities, 14 days and too many gelatos later, it's over.
And we're exhausted ! I need to learn how to plan more relaxing holidays in the future. It was like boot camp everyday and my feet were killing me by midday. The bags were heavy. The weather was terrible at times.
But I enjoyed every minute of it (in retrospect !) and I hope the rest of the gang did too. Well, they're still speaking to me, so that's a good sign. :)
Here's a final re-cap of the various cities and towns we visited :
- Vienna : A - The city had a lot of charm and was very clean.
- Salzburg : A+ - My absolute favourite of the trip.
- Salzkammergut : A+ - The surrounding regions of Salzburg were beautiful
- Venice : A - This was very different to any of the other places we visited and getting lost is part of the fun.
- Florence : C - Unfortunately, I found Florence to be very dirty and crowded and it just wasn't my cup of tea.
- Pisa : A - Definitely a must see on a trip to Italy.
- San Gimignano : A+ - A very beautiful Tuscan hilltown.
- Siena : B+ - It's was OK.
- Rome : A - All roads lead to Rome !
Arrivederci !
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