Day 218: 18th Jan 2018 - The Vatican

I was a little concerned that the Vatican may not be a huge success with the rest of the family but I really wanted to go so off we went. A few stops on the Metro then following the trusty Satnav to the Vatican Museums, dodging the numerous ticket touts and guides wanting our hard earned  Euro's.

I thought that here may be a place where a guide would bring things to life, but if I was going to pay out for this I would need a recommendation and sadly we couldn't get a positive one, however I did read that the kids audio guide was worthwhile. So after zero queuing despite many of the touts selling jump the line tickets telling us it would be a really long wait, we entered the Vatican.

Esmé was keen for the kids audio guide which was a little like a treasure hunt, with a sheet showing various paintings and artefacts she had to find before listening to the information on the audio. AJ wasn't interested at first so we just sprung the 5 Euros for one. However it wasn't long before he was looking longingly at Esmé enjoying the experience so I returned for one more. The audio guides were fantastic and had the kids really engaged. I soon realised that each audio guide had 2 headphone sockets so I could listen in to Esme's too. Next time we will bring more headphones. The kids were really engaged for about 2/3 of the Museums, far more than Patrick was!

They treasure hunt was great as it really made the kids look at each picture to check they had got the right one. Next was the Egyptian Museum where the kids really enjoyed looking at the different artefacts.

Esmé looking at the mummy and listening to the audio guide

Next there was a section with lots of sculptures of Greek/Roman Gods.... the Romans stole the Greek Gods!

AJ was in his element here as he has done a little of this at school and has also been reading any Greek Mythology books he can find on the boat. He could tell me the names of many before I could read the plaques beside them.

Mercury & Hercules

 Onwards to the Cartography room where AJ insisted I take a picture of the Latin on the floor so he could try google translate for it later.... maybe we'll try this week!

The cartography room was interesting as all the maps were drawn assuming Rome was the center of the universe, so Sicily was actually shown "upside down" with the south of the Island (and our current home of Ragusa) at the top!

The ceilings here were beautiful too.

Finally we went to the Sistine Chapel where Esmé was a little underwhelmed, or perhaps just a little tired but AJ really liked "The Last Judgement" on the end wall, I hope for reasons other than it was painted by a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!

Next was a rather mediocre lunch in the café, and then out down an amazing staircase which AJ loved to photograph. In hindsight we should have gone to a restaurant just outside the Vatican but Esmé was close to meltdown so we absolutely needed to stop for food immediately.

The intention then was to go to St Peter's Basilica however when we got to St Peter's square there was quite a queue so we decided to just enjoy the square and let the kids have a run around before heading back to the apartment.