Today’s highlights included two sights: the Vatican Museum (where we’ve been previously) and Castel Sant’Angelo (a new destination for us).
The Vatican Museum’s collection was spectacular as usual, but it was remarkably crowded (always a buzz kill), especially on the march to the Sistine Chapel (which I’ve always felt is a bit over-rated anyway, if I’m honest). Mercifully, we’d booked tickets in advance so at least we didn’t have to wait to get into the museum.
Meh.
To me the highlights of the Vatican Museum were the delightfully affordable and delish lunch at an outdoor yet covered cafe, as well as the pleasure of getting up close to works located off of the main tourist paths, such as this evocative bust of a man:
After the museum, we contemplated visiting St. Peter’s Basilica. Then we saw the entrance line, which was snaking around the square in the rain. So, we quickly re-contemplated and moved on having “been there and done that” already.
We moved on to Castel Sant’Angelo, which was built originally as the Roman Emperor Hadrian’s mausoleum.
Here’s a photo of the exterior (taken on a different, drier day) taken a bit later in the week:
It was an interesting place to visit although there’s not a tremendous amount of art or artifacts inside. The architecture (having been added to and modified over the years) was fascinating, and the views from the building were spectacular:
For dinner, we went to The Bulldog (a Dutch place with an outpost in Rome) for some non-Italian grub. After this we went to the local pastry shop, which we’d also visited for breakfast too.