Roma inside

St Peter's Basilica was pretty impressive, though we couldn't help wondering what else all that money could have been spent on... but anyway!! I didn't know about the Swiss guards at the Vatican. Apparently (and I can now believe this), Italians aren't very good at keeping secrets so the Pope has Swiss guards to keep the going-ons of the Vatican to themselves!!

HIGHLIGHTS: For me, the Pieta by Michelangelo... only since moving to Europe have I become more art focused and for me, this was the best sculpture I've seen.. he's just captured the moment so accurately and sensitively... just beautiful. For Marc, I think the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Museum... a huge hall full of antique maps of Europe and the world... the Catholics have everything!
LOWLIGHTS: Getting into the Sistine Chapel as students: the full cost was 26€ but I only had a 20€ note in my hand so after waiting a little bit the man just said "prego prego" and took my money. Thinking we'd scored a nice bloke, we looked at our tickets and realised he'd charged us as students (a total of 16€) so he'd pocketed 4€ for himself!! Honest people working in the Vatican… but hey, we got a discount!