Day 35 - Audience with the Pope, Vatican City

 Our last day today and we managed to get a late check out at Saraceno, so we can go and quite happily sweat it up at the Vatican, come back, have showers and go to the airport.

We got to the Vatican at around 9:30am to get good seats for the audience with the Pope. Rather that try and get seats at the front, we got a seat close to the back and sides, so that when Pope Benidict comes around on his Pope Mobile, we'd get a good look. Not bad huh?

As he goes around he does the sign of the cross and blesses us all, the kids were rapped, all Olivia kept saying was "I was blessed, these rosary beads were blessed, we have been blessed" Total highlight! 

The Pope mobile 

Mass with the Pope 

The tapestry of Pope John Paul II was just beautiful. So glad to have been here at the time of the Beautification. We saw PJP II the last time we were here at the Papal audience, and we have similar photos from that day back in 2000 too.

We then got ourselves into a tour with a very knowlegable guide, who really had a way with words. He was clever and witty and funny and the amount of information he gave us was incredible. My brain was in information overload. I'm not even sure how much of it I was able to retain!

This statue brought a lot of insiration to all the Renaisance artists and was a favourite of Michaelangelos. It is the body he painted on Christ in the final paining he did in the Sistine Chapel "Judgement Day" and also the inspiration for the artist who carved the 'Thinking Man"... like I said, information overload, can't remember his name...

This mosaic was moved from a Palace, tile by tile and relaid here at the Vatican Museum. They tiles were removed and numbered in order and then transported and relaid in sequence. That job took years (and I complain about my job???)

This is where the expression "AS TOEY AS A ROMAN SANDLE " comes from

This style of work is called 'Chiaro Scuro', which literally means 'Light Dark' There is no raised plater work here, all of this is painted onto a totally flat surface in a way to make it look 3D. Amazing.

A tapestry of the Assumption of Jesus. This was made in a special technique (I can't remember the name of it) but as you walk from the left to the right past the Tapestry, it moves with you. So when you're standing to the left, the door that Jesus is standing on is facing you and Jesus is looking at you, then when you stand to the right of the painting all the angles change and he is still looking at you and the door is jutting out towards you still. There were 2 tapestries done in this style. 

The Long Room ( Not at the MCG )

This is the ceiling to the Private Chapel of the Pope. The guide pointed out that the ceiling depicts the Angels of Christ in battle with the evils of Hell..... nice...

Another place your not allowed to take photos (Ben couldn't help himself )

Ben told Nic that when this car was released back in the day, it was advertised with a naked lady on the bonnet. After hearing that he wanted a photo with it .

I feel like Lawrence of Arabia 

We are on our way home now thanks for following and we will see you all very soon.

Love Ben, Lee, Liv and Nic
X

Day 34 - Rome; Cappucin Monks Catacombe, Villa Borghese, St Peter's Basilica

I'm almost too embarrassed to blog this for fear of judgment, but we went to another Catacomb today. I find them very creepy, but my family think they're cool. This place was the most decorative of the 3 we've seen, small but it's amazing what you can do with a well placed skull or pelvis.... There were 5 rooms where the bones were used in all sorts of ways, including chandeliers out of pelvises and ribs. You're not allowed to take photos, but true to form, Ben snapped two before we were told off.

These are skeletons of Monks from the order.

Creepy

This is the church above the catacomb

with a sensational ceiling fresco

Then we went to Villa Borghese and had a wander through the park to the museum. We didn't know that you have to pre book your visit, you can't just rock up and pay and go in the way you do everywhere else in the world...

When you spend every living moment with the same 3 people for five weeks, you feel like they're in your face all the time - literally! I think we are ready to come home. Delirium is starting to set in....

From Borghese we went back to the Spanish Steps and went inside the Church to stumble across our highlight of the day. There were a group of Brothers standing to the left at the front of the church and a group of Nuns standing to the right and they were singing in response to each other and together. There were about 20 of them but it sounded like there was 100 of them. The sound was angelic. It was truly superb. I took video footage but forgot to take a photo.

Olivia overheard a lady speaking on the phone with an Australian accent and she said 'Mum! They're Australian!" The lady heard Olivia and then came over for a chat. We were explaining that we're getting a bit homesick now that even the sound of an Australian voice is bringing us undone. Anyway, we got chatting and they told us that they didn't know about the Beautification and that they went and it was wonderful. They said they were going back tomorrow (and we're going too) and that they picked up their tickets for the Audience this morning. This put Ben and I into a spin because we were just planning on rocking up tomorrow. We decided we'd better be safe than sorry and get tickets to the audience too, so we hopped into a taxi and went over to the Vaticano.

How cool is this water fountain? It runs so you can fill your water bottle, but then if you stop the flow, the water pops up from the top so you can drink from it.

What a great time to be here. Pope John Paul II fever has hit as his permanent place in St Pere's Basilca was unveiled on Sunday.

This is the new place of rest for Pope John Paul II and his Bronze statue. The lines were so long. But it was so cool to have seen this.

The photo of the statue didn't come up very detailed but it is very imposing and really has a great likeness to him. Lovely.

My count says 146 Popes since St Peter who was crucified in 67AD

We got our tickets for the Audience with the Pope for tomorrow and we've seen the Basilica. One more day to go before we're back on a plane coming home. Can't believe it's nearly over.

Day 33 - Rome; Spanish Steps Via Condotti & Del Corso

We slept in again and didn't get out the door until late morning.  We headed out to Barbarini Square to find the Cappucin Monks church because there is another Catacomb there. (I know, it's a bit of an obsession with my lot) But of course, by the time we got there, they had closed for their afternoon siesta. (What a life) so we just wandered around for a bit.

Ben and I remembered seeing this little church last time. It's just up from the Trevi Fountain, so we popped in again and it took our breath away all over again, and the kids too. Surprisingly, it's often them that say, 'Can we have a look inside?" when we see a church.

This is us going up to San Pietro in Vincoli Church
(St Peter in Chains) 

So many skeletons are used in churches.

These are the ACTUAL chains that were used to secure Saint Peter as they transported him from Jerusalem to Rome to have him crucified. He pleaded to be crucified upside down because he was not worthy to be killed in the same manner as Christ. 

This grand sculpture was done by Michaelangelo

Always spectacular

After a repose back at the apartment, we headed out to do a spot of shopping down Del Corso and Via Condotti and to take in the Spanish Steps. Beautiful at night, ruined a bit by all the street vendors, but that's the way it is these days.

9pm and we're the first in to dinner at Gusto. A restaurant that came recommended to us by Cristina. It was pretty good to, Mi gusto.