Hi all,

Well i had a change of plan today and decided to go to the Vatican, which is on the other side of town. I was looking forward to this as i had been told that the museums there in particular are brilliant, and could easily rival the Louvre. Clearly, whoever that was was being sarcastic. While the museums were ok (nothing great), it cost you 14 Euro to get in and you were constantly being told by the museum guards to keep moving, to the point where you couldn?t even stop to read about what it is you were actually seeing. The highlight was supposed to be the Sistine Chapel of course, and while it was to a certain extent spectacular, they had the room so dark you could barely see anything at all-and in any case you couldn?t take photos.

Also at the Vatican is of course the home of St Peters Basilica, which is essentially considered the primary church in the world. Also surprisingly, this was nowhere near as awe inspiring as the Koeln Dom for example. I did also notice a significant difference in the content of the St Peters Basilica in comparison to the Koeln Dom which was quite interesting; while the Koeln Dom placed its emphasis on the glory of god etc, with images of Christ and the like, St Peter?s was more a monument to the glory of the Popes-i think i saw an image of Jesus once in the whole cathedral. Clearly then, St Peters was more an attempt at self glorification by those who control it more than anything else.

Anyway, tomorrow i will be off to the Colosseum and the Foro Romano, which im sure will be much more interesting!!!