Rome

On the cruise the last day we had breakfast with a couple from Alabama and we were talking about coming to Rome. They gave us the name of a really good guide through the Vatican, so we booked him the next day. We met Rich at a restaurant across the street from the Vatican Musuem. The lines to get in we're huge, but Rich just zoomed us right in the door. It was great having your own personal guide and he was from the states, just moved to Italy to be a guide. He showed us some of the art prior to entering an area on his iPad, and talked about its significants and point in history. So that when you got to the Sistine Chapel for example, you knew how it was arranged and the stories told through the art before you walked in. We both thought it was much smaller than we expected, and quite crowded. You can't take pictures in the chapel, though many rude folks did. St. Peter's was beautiful, the pictures created with the stone tile were magnificent.