May 12 - Roma

I decided to stay in the hotel in Civitavecchia for another night and use the nine euro Berg ticket to take the train to Rome and use the local transport, buses and metro, which come free with the ticket.
Got off at St. Pietro Station and headed down to St. Peter's Square with the plan to see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. I opted to join a guided tour that bypassed the lines to wait for tickets (40 euros though the ticket to the museum and chapel are about half that cost). Again, lucked out with an excellent guide (Ian from Scotland) and a small group that included a couple Aussies, and two young ladies from Saskatoon (small world as you meet Canadians wherever you go). 
Throughout the tour of the museum the guide kept making references to various artworks that inspired characters in the Sistine Chapel frescoes and gave background on the numeric formulas found in nature and the human form (some call it sacred geometry). He was especially good at detailing the political content as Michaelangelo was not a painter and did not want to do the ceiling but was forced to by his patron the pope of the day. He had to learn how to do fresco painting which intails adding pigment to the wet plaster  with no margin for error or you have to scrape off the plaster and start over. During the five years he worked on the ceiling he became very adept but hated the entire process as it kept him from his passion for sculpture. And because he hated it he put in various things into the painting guaranteed to anger the pope...his own form of revenge.
When the ceiling was done, Michaelangelo thought he was done but when a new pope came into power he wanted a fresco behind the alter and consigned the job to Michaelangelo. The story goes that the pope had brought a cardinal in to view the work in process and the cleric felt there was too much nudity...which afronted the artist, so he painted the cardinal 's face in as the keeper of the gates of hell with donkey ears and a tail. When he complained to the pope, the pope told him he only has jursidiction for earth and heaven and no say in hell...so the painting stays to this day.  (That particular pope had a sense of humor I would say).
The museum is filled with priceless treasures, sculptures, tapestry, gifts to the pope...one huge bathtub (Nero's) in purple kind of marble that is so rare that there is none left is valued at 300 million euros and the museum has a few other pieces. Our guide noted that because so many of the pieces are priceless and irreplaceable they are not insured...what would be the point. Our two hour tour ended up being closer to three and I was starving by the time we finished so it was off to a cafe for spaghetti and meatballs...and capuccino.
By the time I treked back to St. Peter's I was done in, and the mosquitoes were once again eating me alive, so I caught the bus up the hill to the train station and headed back to Civitavecchia.  Once back in my room I laid down for a nap...and didn't wake up until 6:30 the next morning...must have been tired.