I got up this morning -- or rather dragged myself out of bed -- and tried to be ready on time to hook up with other members of my group who are going to the Vatican Museum today. When I was dressing I did see one person walking through the courtyard. By 8am I was downstairs looking to see if anyone was around. I didn't find anyone, so I set off through the back gate of the Academy. After getting some money out of the bank, I purchased two bus tickets. I asked the man at the newstand which bus to take to the Vatican Museum. He said the 870. I did manage to find a bus stop with 870, but i didn't know which stop I would need to get off at. After waiting there a few minutes, I decided to walk on down and try to see again if I met up with anyone else. I had the sense that a particular street was the right direction to go to the Vatican. I walked down to the 'baby Jesus" street (named after the children's hospital, Bambino Jesu). There was another bus stop and a man was standing there. It was a bus stop for the 870. I asked him if this was the bus to go to the Vatican. He could speak English quite well and said that this was the bus. In fact, he works at the Vatican bookshop, so I could just follow him. The bus came by and we got on it. About 5 minutes later we got off the bus. We then started walking through a bus terminal; down escalators, through hallways, and finally out onto a street. When I asked him what time it was, he aid it was 8:45, which was when we were supposed to meet. He pointed out to me where to go to get to the entrance to the museum. Every street corner had an Entrance sign. Street corner after street corner. I walked as fast as I could. Finally I came to the group of people standing in line. I past them to go to where the exit is, hoping that somehow the group was delayed and they would be waiting for me. They weren't. I decided I would just get into line and go into the museum on my own.

After getting into the wrong line at first, I finally ended up back at the back of the line. We stood there for 5-10 minutes. Finally it started moving. We went through metal detectors. I was inside. I saw where there was a sign to buy tickets. It was upstairs. I noticed to my left there were booths for different types of groups. I wondered whether I could show them my tessera (special permit) and at least get a reduced price. All of the sudden I heard my name. Here was the whole group sitting together. It took a little bit more for the leaders to get me added to the number, but I was back to where I should have been.

Finally we were led by a guard into the Roman antiquities area. He kept a close watch on us, not allowing anyone to stray away from the group. We spent some time looking together at some specific pieces. You certainly get more out of looking at an object when you have experts who can describe all the various features.

When we were done the guard turned us loose outside of the special area. So off we went. Some people went to look at the Etruscan (early Roman) materials. Different ones headed toward the Sistine Chapel. I started following the signs leading to the Cappella Sistina. I had no idea how far it was going to be. We kept going from one room to the next room. Through long corridors of tapestries. Through a long corridor of large maps. Winding our way through one room and into the next. Each one had a sign with an arrow pointing to the Cappella Sistina. After awhile the sign would also say "Uscida, Exit". I have to admit I started following the signs for the exit more than the chapel. It was an unbelievable labyrinth of rooms. Finally, we enter a large room "stage right." It's the Sistine Chapel, but it looks like a herd of cattle at market day. The guards were telling people to keep moving down the steps, all the time joking and laughing with each other. One guard was saying something like, "No talko. Shhhhhhhhh." I hadn't seen any signs about not taking pictures, so I turned around a took a picture -- without the flash of course. A guard came walking toward me. He asked if I spoke English. He then told me no pictures. He even wanted to make sure I turned it off, which I did and put the lens cover on. I was in this great mass of people (maybe that's why they call it Mass); most everyone is craning their heads to look up, whispering to someone else about what they see. Then you hear the guard; I think he would even clap his hands, "No talko. Shhhhhhhhhhhhh." Every ten seconds he would say that. I was reminded of the stereotype of the Catholic school teacher, rapping disobedient children's knuckles with a ruler. It was such a bizarre experience. I have no idea why they don't at least try putting up one of their signs that say no photography and please be quiet and reverential. I was so tired and hot from the "haunted house" tour that I could not enjoy looking at the paintings. The room is smaller than I thought it would be and the most famous of the paintings were smaller than I imagined. I pushed my way through the crowd located the Uscita, eventually ending up back outside.

Once outside the museum, I tried to walk back in the direction I had come. i just couldn't remember where I had come out of the bus station. It was about 1pm by now. So I stopped at a restaurant with tables on the street. I had a nice vegetarian pizza and something to drink. Then I decided to follow the wall of the Vatican around and see where it ended up. Sure enough it led to St. Peter's. It certainly is impressive to walk out onto St. Peter's Square, with the two fountains and the obelisk in the center. All around are the large, ornate buildings with statues at the top looking down on you. I figured out which line to get in in order to go into the Basilica.

St. Peter's Basilica is very impressive. I've always liked the columns around St. Peter's tomb. I accidentally turned the camera setting and some of my pictures didn't turn out very well. After spending about 30-45 minutes walking around inside, i decided to head out. I went out the way I came in. I bought a 4 euro bottle of gatorade and asked for directions. I got the general idea from them how to get a bus back to Gianicolo (Janiculum). After roaming around a few blocks I saw a sign down an alley for Terminal Gianicolo. I went in there and it looked like the place I had gone through on my way in. I found a bus stop inside that would go where I needed to go. After a few minutes one of the members of my group happened to come along. We talked for awhile and finally he asked a bus driver about the 115 bus. The driver told him the 115 doesn't come inside and we would need to go up one level to the street. We got that and a 115 bus was sitting there; the driver was taking his break, since this is the end of the line. After about 15 minutes, we were able to get underway and in 10 minutes we were back at the American Academy.

It's been a full day, another tiring day. I don't think I sat down for more than about 15 minutes all morning and then about a half an hour for lunch. I'm glad I went to the Vatican. There's certainly more there than anyone can absorb in one day. The BBC is reporting today that the Vatican didn't make as much money as expected last year because of the lower value of the dollar from US catholics. I was glad today that I could help them out a little bit. It was worth the cost.