Day 3 in Rome

Up and at 'em
The day started with a bang. We were supposed to be up by 6 a.m. and down for breakfast by 7. We were late getting to breakfast and it was a fast walk to the Vatican.  Our rendezvous was at 7:55 a.m. Traffic at that time of the morning is wild.  Everyone was madly whizzing on their scooters and tiny European cars to get to their place of work. We were late but so were our fellow tourists. In fact, they missed the tour entirely so Albert and I had a private tour through the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.
 
The Tour
Our lovely guide, Sabrina, was quite knowledgeable and our 3 hour tour was a run through the museum. There's so much to see and definitely not enough time in 3 hours to see everything. We saw the important stuff:  The tapestries woven in Brussels, hall of maps (incredibly accurate maps of every section of Italy done as frescoes in the early 1580's), mosaics painstakingly transferred from ancient Roman homes. The Rafael rooms with frescoes completed by Rafael's apprentices and the Academia (School of Athens) done by Rafael himself, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's.

Rafael's Academia

Sistine Chapel
Needless to say, the Sistine Chapel was the highlight of today's tour. Completed by Michelangelo in 4 years!!   Glad we're here in January and not summer or fall when the crowds must be overwhelming.  No picture taking allowed in the chapel.

St. Peter's Basilica
Another Michelangelo moment with the Pieta and St Peter's dome which he designed. He was a true Renaissance man!!

Ah!! The Pieta

Cupola
We skipped the 500 something stair climb and opted to take the lift for 2 Euro more.  However, we still had over 300 stairs to climb to get to the top of the cupola, but what a view of Rome and of St. Peter's Square!!  Worth every claustrophobic and endless stair climbing moment.  The very last set of stairs takes you up some very steep spiral stairs that seem to close in on you the further up you go. 

Dinner at Alfredo's on the Piazza Augusta Imperatore- apparently this is where Fettuccine Alfredo was invented. Food was fine and we didn't have the Fettuccine Alfredo and we probably should have.