Picto Diary - 20, 21, June 2018 - Vatican Museum

Above: Detroit to Rome. Delta Airlines. Boeing 777. Early AM. 20 June 2018.

A dix mille metres au dessus, quoi.

Tout aupres d'une ancienne residence (1966) a moi. Hotel Gargoulou, La Rochelle, Charentes-Maritime.

Passagers d'entrepont....mais ca n'etais pas terrible.

Above: Walking down Via Montebello. Rome, Italy. 20 June 2018.

Here, we are on our way to Restaurant Katty a block or two away. I had a steak. There was a lot of spaghetti bolognaise shared amongst the kids. I have always maintained that it is impossible to get a bad meal in Italy, and at Katty, we were not disappointed.

We stayed in a Via Montebello private apartment found by TIMDT on Trip Advisor. The rooms were spacious, well lit, and air conditioned. Rooms were linked by a common kitchen area with everything needed to live in. We found a nearby supermarket and stocked up on breakfast, bottled water, snacks etc.

Our first extended family vacation since 2013. That year we went on a Norwegian Cruise Lines Alaskan cruise.

Now...
Three nights in Rome... a seven day cruise to Barcelona on the Disney Magic...ended by three nights in Barcelona.

TIMDT and Mwah have seen many of the anticipated sights already, but it has been thirty years since we were last in Rome. Naples, Pompeii, and Mr. Vesuvius will be new to us. Though I have spent over three years of my life in France, I've never been to Marseilles or Cannes, also stops on this cruise.

So, something new to be seen along with a good family experience.

Above: Our family groups on an overlook of St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. 21 June 2018.

Above: Kids group for a Sistine Chapel pre visit tutorial with guide Angelica. Vatican Museum. 21 June 2018.

We used "Europe 4 Kids" to provide guides and tutorials for our Rome visit.

"Europe 4 Kids" worked quite well. Tour leaders handed out a kid friendly brochure for the kids to check off certain sites they visited. Grrr was assiduous in identifying and checking off the various sites along the tour. Kids received the occasional gift/prize... a key chain or some such to hold their interest in the tour. Angelica, and later guide Katia, were great at telling stories at a kid level... and keeping the kids' attention. Katia, in particular, would use the child's first name in drawing him/her back into the discussion when attention strayed.

Here at the Vatican Museum, we were taken to the little visited area where the various popes' transport, collected from over the centuries were exhibited. This was a good move as the exhibit was not surrounded by mobs of tourists and the kids loved the big carriages and pope mobiles. Angelica was able to move our group from vehicle to vehicle while pointing out interesting features and facts of interest to both adults and children.

Above: Selfie (I'm wearing the green strap) of Sistine Chapel ceiling. Vatican City, 2018.

Mobs of people. Bumper to bumper the whole way down the corridor of geography, into and out of the Sistine Chapel. Authorities tried to move everyone on and discouraged photos... mostly because stops for images would delay the throngs walking through the chapel.

It took Michelangelo, in his '30s, four years to complete this masterpiece. The painting (s) were fully restored end April 1994. TIMDT and Mwah (sic) saw the painting first in 1972, before the restoration. I recall the first visit well and so was able to contrast in my mind the difference between the washed out painting (s) I saw in the '70's with the more vividly colorful rendition today... and as it might have looked at the time Michelangelo painted it.

Above: The Pieta, by Michaelangelo. St. Peter's Basilica. Vatican City. 21 June 2018.

Pieta. By Michelangelo.

After being damaged by a vandal, now repaired and behind see through protection.

We first saw the Pieta in 1972 only a few months before it was vandalized. You could walk right up to and almost touch the statue. There was only a rope barrier separating the statue from the spectators.

Touring in Europe was easier "back then."

We went to Stonehenge in 1974. Then, you could drive right up to the circle of stones, exit the car and walk amidst the monoliths.

Today at Stonehenge (I visited in 2015) you drive as far as a visitors center a mile and a half away from the main circle of stones. From the visitors center you must either walk or take a dedicated bus to the monument.

At the monument you are no longer allowed to walk amidst the stones. You must view the monument from an outside perimeter.

So many more tourists today compared to 45 years ago.