Year 5, Day 163 “Living the Dream”. Friday, 10/10/2025 – Day 4 of 30 day trip to Rome, Italy with a Mediterranean cruise and a transatlantic cruise back to Bayonne, NJ. We had the buffet breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn Rome Airport.
Then headed to meet up with another Viator scheduled tour “Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel”. This tour was booked in advance for $163.44 for the two of us.
This morning’s travels are a lot easier. We know how to pick up the express train to Roma Termini. Traveling in the train we can see the Eurosky Tower. The Eurosky Tower is the tallest residential building in Rome and one of the tallest residential towers in Italy. It is located in the Torrino area. The building has won the prestigious ‘Real Estate Award – Smart Green Building’ for sustainability. It is an example of virtuous architecture. This includes photovoltaic panels, rainwater collection, and pneumatic waste collection on each floor. It certainly stands out in the view from our train ride. We took the metro subway after the train to our meeting point.
It was so crowded in the Vatican Museums that it was difficult to stop and look at things. Over 25,000 visitors visit the Vatican every day. Here are some pictures of the outside of the Vatican before we entered the museums.
Once through the metal detectors we met up with our official tour guide.
The first thing we did was go into the Pinecone Courtyard. This is a large open space of 300 square meters adjacent to the corridors and halls of the museum. It is named the Pinecone Courtyard because there is a huge bronze cone in the courtyard. This cone stands on top of a double staircase designed by Michelangelo. In this courtyard you will find also Pomodoro’s circular sphere. The inside of this sphere rotates with the wind.
The Vatican museums consists of 54 separate museums consisting of over 1,400 rooms. Here is a picture dump of the some of the statues, ceilings, and tapestries that we saw. We only saw a small portion of the museums. Honestly, I could not really explain these pictures. Most of the time I had no idea what I was looking it. It was very overwhelming.
The last stop on the tour was The Sistine Chapel, containing Michelangelo’s frescoes. In the Sistine Chapel no pictures or videos are allowed. The Creation of Adam and The Last Judgment, is the most famous artwork at the Vatican Museums. It would take days to see everything in this museum. Vatican city is the smallest country. This entire country is about one-eighth the size of New York’s Central Park. This city was formally established in 1929. We walked for 8 hours today. It was exhausting. We were fortunate enough to find Father Davies from Nigeria. He has been at the Vatican for nine years. He blessed two rosaries we purchased here.
I really wanted to visit the Carriage Pavilion. That museum features a variety of transportation used by the popes over the centuries. It was getting late and we had enough of walking. Therefore we elected not to go visit it. You exit down through a huge circular staircase called the Bramante Staircase. This is double helix staircase designed by Donato Bramante in the early 16th century. This staircase has two intertwined helical ramps that allow people to go up and down without crossing paths. Just so you know just like everything you visit you exit through the gift shop. This beautiful staircase leads there.
The Vatican Museums saw an estimated 7 million visitors in 2024. The ticket and souvenir sales neared $100 million. I could probably learn a lot from this young man about the Vatican.
Things to ponder today! Have to leave you thinking.
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