Roma, undici (ewn-deech-ee)

It's Monday morning, our last day in Rome.  We depart from our apartment with all of our luggage and find the bus stop which will take us to our final destination in Rome--Vatican City.

Upon our arrival, we found a nearby USO office where we can leave our luggage for the day.  This was awesome--thanks USO Roma!  Afterwards, we walked to Vatican Square to look around.  Some-or at least one-of us are grumpy, but we manage to take some pictures.

Then we headed off to the Museum, which includes the Sistine Chapel.  On the advice from some friends, we purchased our tickets to the Museum in advance.  HUGE payoff!  We walked past a line that seemed to go for-ever, and right into the museum doors.  The place was packed with people, and it was a bit of a cattle herding through the various galleries.  The amount of art was overwhelming. We would have loved to stop and actually appreciate some of what we were seeing, but our time today was limited, so we kept our eyes focused on signs leading to the Capella Sistina and followed them.  No pictures were "allowed" (although many people were snapping away), so I have no photos from it, but suffice it to say that it was pretty impressive in person, and the pictures wouldn't do it justice anyway.

After that, we found some lunch and went back to see St. Peter's.  This is one big Basilica!

 Michelangelo's Pieta

And the brightly colored guards

In reflecting on our visit, all the kids mentioned seeing a lot of Popes' tombs while there.  Not what first came to my mind, but fairly accurate, I suppose.

Before heading back to the train station we hung out in the square a while, people watching and pigeon chasing.

Day 3, Stop 11, Check!