You can see pictures from this day here.
On the last day in Rome we wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, since it was closed when we first arrived. Unfortunately thanks to all the wine and Nutella from the night before we got a late start, and by the time we arrived the line was miles long. We decided to go ahead and wait – we didn’t have an appointment until the train departure at 6:30 that evening.
The line was tough. It stretched around the Vatican wall and you were never quite sure how long it was. It didn’t help that we had been walking all over the place for almost ten straight days, and it was taking a toll. We were surrounded by people with various ideas about what was polite, and all the body heat was making me sweat.
We had skipped breakfast and I was dying for something to drink or eat. As we slowly went through the line, various beggars would be there waiting for us. There was an old lady with half her scalp missing due to some strange disease, Indian guys selling fans and drinking water, women with kids begging for money or food, Korean guys smoking cigarettes.
We turned one corner and saw that the line had gotten so thick from people joining it in the middle that it was attracting even more people – we had waited almost an hour to watch people just jump into line right in the middle and cutting in front of all of us. I would fear for my life if I did that, but they seemed to get away with it.
The line was at least eight people wide, so there was lots of back and forth. Somebody who might be behind could end up ahead of you; there was no reason to freak out. We were just cattle being herded somewhere. There was an American couple behind us talking away with some other Americans they met in line. They talked and talked and talked, sometimes loudly, and so I had to hear about their life stories and what kind of weed they thought was growing on the wall and how Asian people are so loud and annoying and how once they went to Benicia and it was really an interesting city.
At one point the loud couple got in front of us somehow. I didn’t mind – the line shifts and that’s fine – we’ll all get there. The female member of the loud couple was determined to get the other couple who they had met in line up in front with them, and so she kept giving us dirty looks as if we had somehow cut in between them. Luckily the other couple pointed out that they had been behind us the whole time, and they didn’t feel right walking in front of us now.
If it sounds like the tourists were getting to me, you’re right. Something as simple as looking in front of you when you walk forward can be a challenge for some of these people. We had been hitting the touristy sites for almost two weeks, and I was reaching my limit of what I could put up with.
But in the end, you just had to ask yourself how many times in your life you’ll get a chance to see the Sistine Chapel, and persevere. After two hours we made it inside, and gave the Pope 12 euros each to be admitted into his religious playground.
The Sistine Chapel was part of the Vatican museums, and on the way to the chapel you had a chance to see a lot of beautiful artwork and historical artifacts. We were really bowled over by how impressive it was. There was a long hallway filled only with maps painted as murals on the walls. The map room was the summary of the Catholic Church’s geographical knowledge of the age, and it was amazing to see every mountain and stream rendered in such detail on the walls. There were statues of all types – even some I wouldn’t expect to find inside a Catholic church. The variety was impressive.
Finally we reached the Sistine Chapel and went inside. Kuniko and I sat against the wall and took it all in. It was smaller than I expected, but it was impressive. Some of the paintings stood out as if in 3D. There was a huge crowd of people standing in there doing the same thing we were – trying to see it all. The Vatican museums were already worth the wait, but this was the icing on the cake.
Photos were allowed everywhere but inside the Sistine Chapel. They had signs everywhere showing a camera with a red slash through it. They had announcements in various languages saying no camera and video. Despite all of that, when we finally got into the Sistine Chapel the thing you noticed first was the crowd of people taking pictures. Earlier in line some girls in front of us were bragging about how they were going to take pictures anyway. Something was wrong with so many people blatantly ignoring the rules – but maybe I’m just getting old.
Finally we headed out and made our way back to our hotel. We stopped in for some sandwiches for lunch, and then picked up our bags and set out for the train station on foot. We could have taken the metro, but we had time to kill and we thought it might be more fun to take our time and enjoy the walk.
Kuniko navigated us through, carrying all our bags and wearing our backpacks, and we finally arrived at the station after more than an hour of walking. It was tough – but we did it. We killed a little time at the station, and then got on board our train.
You remember the overnight train to Venice? The hostel on a train? Well today, we were taking an overnight train all the way back to Paris. This time I was able to get a proper reservation, and we got on board to find a very comfortable room for two. There was a sink with running hot and cold water, towels, bottled water, blankets, room for all our bags, and a door that locked.
What a difference. It was the way it was supposed to be. This time we weren’t alarmed when the conductor asked for our passports. He brought us hot coffee and biscuits in the morning, and the bathrooms stayed clean. This was traveling in first class, and it made a huge difference.
We had a simple dinner of salami, prosciutto, cheese and crackers, and watched the scenery go by as we relaxed and recapped our trip. It was peaceful and relaxing, and we needed it big time.
We went to bed early and slept much better than our first experience on an overnight train. It was still a little tough to get used to the movement of the train, and sometimes we would stop in the middle of the night somewhere and pick up passengers. But, that door was locked and we were tucked into our beds. Before long it was morning, and we cleaned up a little bit using the wash basin and the bathroom down the hall. We arrived about an hour late in Paris, but there was still plenty of time before our flight. We headed to the bus stop to catch an airport bus, and were one of the last few people who made it on board. It was about 30 minutes on the bus, and we got on board our flight to Bangkok and had a long 10 hour flight. All this time was without a shower, though, and I was feeling pretty greasy. We stayed awake on the 10 hour flight as an attempt to beat the jet lag later on, so we got to the Bangkok airport and we were exhausted again.
I ended up renting a day room for four hours in the airport, and so we took a shower and then slept for three and a half hours, waking just in time to do some shopping and catch our flight back to Osaka. Clearing customs and immigration was a breeze in Japan, and we were home in our apartment around 11 p.m. The first thing we both did was take a bath. It felt so good.
