Travel Tip #1 - Rome

In order to be physically fit enough to see the too numerous sights of Rome, I highly recommend walking the camino first.

This is my third day, my legs are sore and stiff, I am completely exhausted.

Another early start today cuz my goal was the Vatican museums. After the bus and then the subway, it was about 09h00, and maybe already a little too late. As I was walking the few blocks to the museums I started to feel overwhelmed by the crowds. Both sides of the street were thick with people going to the Vatican. Yet, this was just a regular Tuesday morning, not Superbowl Sunday.

I regained some enthusiasm when I turned the corner in the direction of the museum entrance, the crowd was significantly thinner.

But with a mass like that at 9 in the morning, I don't know if I will bother to get out of bed any earlier to rush to St. Peter's.

Once inside the museum, I did the 7 km (that's what the guide says!) museum stroll twice - I wouldn't do that again. Because I was a little before the throng of people who would soon show up, I rushed thru, stopping to browse here and there, to get to the Sistine Chapel to be able to experience it in relative calm. Then I went to the toilet and did it again, to see if I had missed anything significant.

All I missed was the experience of pushing thru a museum shoulder to shoulder with too many people. I saw more in my first rushed tour than everyone else was seeing in this more typical round. And there were no escape routes; you had to keep going to the end.

When you reach the Sistine Chapel, you are supposed to be quiet and respect the sacred space in silence.

Can you imagine expecting hoards of people to do this?

The guards were spending all their time loudly shushing the crowd and every few moments a bell would ring, followed by a taped recording of a woman's voice (pleasant but loud) asking for silence. My second time thru I even found myself shushing a loud-mouthed Italian woman gabbering to her partner next to me.

I tried to get in to St. Peter's yesterday afternoon, but didn't fancy standing in the rain in a line with hundreds of umbrellas. Today showed me that even going early there will be a crowd. So maybe I am done with the Vatican.

So... what is that all about anyway?