Pristine Sistine Tour

[Again, I took a ton of photos.  Only the best are on the blog.  If you want to see the rest, please go HERE.]

We woke up bright and early for our Vatican City tour.  We chose the Pristine Sistine - The Chapel at its Best tour through Walks of Italy.  We had to meet by 7:30am.  It was a bit of a walk to get there, so we had to leave before 7am.  We stopped by a Pasticeria to get a quick breakfast and then we were on our way.  

When we arrived, we were herded into a group (there were 3 groups leaving that morning).  We had 10 people in our group (remember, there is a maximum of 12).  We walked up to the Vatican and got in line.  At first I was disappointed.  There were already tons of people in line.  We got to get in an hour early because we were with a tour group, but so did every other tour group there.  I was a bit miffed at the misleading description on the tour website.

However, when we got inside, we immediately got our headphones and went straight to the Sistine Chapel.  We skipped over a ton of stuff to get there before everyone else.  When we arrived at the Sistine Chapel, we were the only group inside.  We sat down on benches and our tour guide told us everything about the chapel.  How it was painted, when it was, how long it took, etc, and a ton of other info on Popes and Michelangelo.  We probably spent almost an hour in there.  

(Source)

This was a big deal for me.  The last time I saw the Sistine Chapel, we were allowed only a few minutes inside.  It was REALLY crowded and the guards wouldn't let us talk.  So, this time, I actually enjoyed the Sistine Chapel (sorry, no photos allowed).  

When we finished there, we walked through the rest of Vatican City.  There is so much to see!  The guide told us that if we spent just one minute looking at every item inside, we'd spend over 12 years straight inside!  Phew!  That's a lot of stuff.  So, obviously we didn't see everything or spend a ton of time looking at stuff (besides the chapel).  

However, we did see a lot.  Here's a peek:

One of my favorite items (besides the chapel) was Michelangelo's Pieta.  It's beautifully done (just as everything Michelangelo did is!).  

Look at all the detail!  Can you imagine carving this from a block of stone??  It's absolutely amazing!  They say that when Michelangelo finished, there was lots of talk about who had done work and rumors flew.  Well, Michelangelo wanted credit for it, so he snuck into St. Peter's Basilica several nights in a row to carve his name into Mary's sash.  He was in such a hurry that he actually spelled his name wrong the first time and had to correct it!

Michelangelo's name on the Pieta.

Soon after, we finished up our tour.  Then we stopped at the Vatican City Post Office to buy stamps to send out our postcards.  

Philip was super thrilled about it.  lol

Then we went on a short journey to find a Vatican City shot glass (Philip thought it would be amusing).  We eventually found one and then it was time to go back to exploring Roma!

Hello! Vesuvius??

[I took a bunch of photos, but only my favorites are here.  If you'd like to see them all, please go HERE.]

I was so excited to leave Naples!  But first, we had breakfast at the hotel and then we wandered around the city a bit.  Then we headed off to the train station.  The train we took to Pompeii was actually really nice.  It was air conditioned and clean (it seemed to be new).  

The stone wall in the back of the photo (in front of the treeline) is actually where the sea used to start.  Then the volcano dumped 25 feet of ash onto the area.  The sea is actually now over 2km (~1.25 miles) away from where it used to start!

When we arrived in Pompeii, we still had time before the tour started.  So, we went to a little pizza place to get some lunch (the tour was scheduled to last several hours).  It was seriously overpriced, but what can you expect?  It's basically the only place to eat!  The food was mediocre at best.  The "salad" was just lettuce.  The pizza was dry and flavorless.  But, it was food.  And, it held us over until we got back to Naples.

Anyway, when we finished eating, we met our tour group.  While we waited, there was a guy who kept yelling, "Hello! Vesuvius? Would you like the bus to Vesuvius?"  He just wouldn't stop.  So, it became a big joke for Philip and I the rest of the trip.  Anytime we got bored, we'd just yell out, "Hello! Vesuvius?"  Seriously, after listening to that guy for half an hour, you'd be a little batty, too.  ;)  

Anyway, Our tour guide was actually an archeologist who works in Pompeii!  How fantastic is that??  First, she took us to a place that most tourists do not get to see.  It was a brothel on the edge of the city.  There were painted pictures on the walls of sex acts.  It was like a prostitution menu!  The city actually had over 35 brothels!  There were depictions of sex acts and phallic statues all over!  I guess Pompeii was like the Vegas of its time.  ;)

Then we moved onto the area that everyone gets to see.  When I used to think of Pompeii, I thought of a few buildings excavated from under the ash.  A small town possibly.  Not even close.  The city is enormous!  When it was destroyed, it was a city of over 20,000.  

I also used to wonder why the people chose to live so close to an active volcano.  It turns out, they had no idea.  The previous eruption had been hundreds of years prior and the current residents didn't remember (or have history of it).  They thought that there was a giant living in the mountain.  When they angered the giant, it caused earthquakes.  So, then they'd try to make the giant happy again.  

When the volcano actually erupted, the people were taken by surprise.  There wasn't any lava; it was all ash and poisonous gas.  And the residents that weren't killed by the poisonous gas were killed by the ash.  And then their remains and the rest of the city were perfectly preserved by 25 feet of ash.  The eruption was so violent that ash from Vesuvius was found in Greece.  

The remains of a Pompeiian restaurant. 

After the eruption, the city was basically forgotten about.  The city wasn't rediscovered until the 1700s.  Can you imagine just forgetting about a city destroyed by a volcanic eruption?  I know that Pompeii wasn't a HUGE city, but it was a major port city in its time.  

We wandered around the city for a few hours but we still didn't see everything.  It's amazing how much is left of the city.  Even the remains of people.  There were plaster casts of people and dogs and buildings.  You see, when the city was buried by the ash, it left the people under it.  However, the people, dogs, wood, etc., eventually decomposed.  However, the pocket in the ash still remained.  So, if you fill that pocket with plaster, you get a cast of what was there when the volcano erupted.

You can still see some of the bones left behind in some of the plaster casts.  It's very strange.  These people never saw this coming.  Creepy.  

Anyway, we continued to wander and wander and wander.  After a few hours of wandering, the tour was over.  However, we still didn't see the whole city.  We would've had to explore for days to see everything.  

If you're in the area, definitely take a tour of Pompeii (just stay in Sorrento instead of Naples!).  It's absolutely amazing.  I just wish we would have had more time and then I would've taken the "Hello! Vesuvius?" guy up on his offer.  If we go back, I'll definitely tour Mount Vesuvius, too.  

VIP Colosseum Tour

After we got settled in at the hotel, we ventured out to get some lunch at a nearby pizza place.  Then we wandered around the area surrounding the Colosseum for a while.  At about 1:00, we headed towards our meeting point for our first Walks of Italy tour.  

[I'm took a ton of photos of this tour.  I'm not going to post them all here; just the best ones.  If you'd like to see the rest of the photos I took, please see my whole photo album HERE.] 

Our first tour was the VIP Access Colosseum Underground and Top Tier tour.  First, we took a long tour of the forum.  Our tour guide was a British man named John.  He was absolutely fantastic.  He had a book full of photos to help illustrate his stories and he was absolutely filled to the brim with knowledge of ancient Rome.

When we'd wandered around the forum for a few hours, John took us to the Colosseum.  We got to bypass the absolutely ENORMOUS lines to get in and we went directly underneath where most people do not get to go.  You have to be with a specific tour in order to go underneath.  

Underneath is where the animals and gladiators would wait before entering the arena to fight.  John really helped to set the mood and made us feel as if we were really there in ancient Rome waiting to fight, possibly to the death.  

When we finished underneath, we went up to the top of the Colosseum; again, it's someplace that not everyone (in fact, not many) get to see.  It was amazing.  We could see throughout the whole Colosseum.  It was beautiful.  And, still, John kept pumping our heads full of knowledge.  

I cannot recommend this tour enough!  On a scale of 1 to 10, this is definitely a 10.  I just wish we could've taken it on different day.  Philip and I were a little out of it and exhausted since we'd only just arrived a few hours earlier!  

With Walks of Italy, you will never have a tour group of more than 12 people.  Our group for this tour was only 8 people (including us).  And, John was absolutely fantastic.  Since he was British, his English was perfect.  He knew more about ancient Rome than an encyclopaedia.  This tour was worth every cent we spent on it.  

Like I said, I really recommend it.  However, the tour won't be around much longer.  They will be closing up the underground and up-top very soon.  In fact, it was supposed to be done on September 30 (we took the tour on September 26th), but they've extended it through October.  If you're there this month, TAKE THIS TOUR!  And, if they open the Colosseum again in later years, definitely take the tour!