The Vatican

Even though we are not Catholic, we wanted to visit the Vatican during our trip. We read many different guide books and ask family who had visited for their tips. Then we ignored them and did our own thing. On the way to St. Peter's Square many people approached us to try to convince us to hire them as our official tour guides. They promised we could skip the long lines to buy tickets if we would just hire them.

The only long line was security and the groups had to go through that also. Once past security, the line divided into two - one line for tour groups who already had tickets and the other to buy tickets. 85% of the line was part of a tour group and the line to buy tickets was short and fast. Don't forget to check the dress code before you attend. We did see some women wearing sleeveless shirts who were not allowed to enter St. Peter's Basilica.

We also looked at the official schedule before deciding which day to visit on. The day after we were there, the Pope gave a live speech so they were setting up chairs in order to prepare. Also be sure to follow the rules for photography and while it should be obvious, respect the traditions and expectations especially once inside the Basilica.

From inside the Basilica there was a little section off to one side that had a doorway that led to some steps going down. We watched a few people go down there and decided to follow. Most people didn't even seem to notice this doorway as they were only looking up. I highly suggest looking up, by the way it's amazing from an art perspective. Just don't forget to look everywhere else as well. We followed these few people and ended up in the crypt. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was interesting to see the different tombs. At the end of the crypt we ended up outside and there was a line of people paying to go up in the dome. We didn't even know that was an option and just had to do it. They give you many warnings about the number of steps and making sure of your health and comfort with heights before going up.

So here we are inside the Basilica at the top of the dome. We are now looking down on everyone many stories below and this is a great place to see the detail in the mosaics on the walls.

From there we had the option to go back down or to go up. Not really sure exactly where up would lead us, we decided to go up. They weren't kidding about the stairs. There were a ton of stairs. Many were crazy steep and they had put in a rope to help people pull themselves up. Once again, our kids were amazing and walked all of it without complaint. It was crowded and there weren't places to stop and rest on the way up or down. So once you started you needed to continue.

This was the view from the top. Amazing. Worth every step. It's difficult to tell from the photo just how far up we are. If you look at the first photo you see a  set of columns on top of the dome. We were standing above those. This gave us a view of all of the Vatican property as well as the surrounding areas of Rome.

After the amazing views we started the climb back down. This was many floors down on the same level as the dome. This was the first chance to rest before going down the rest of the way. At this point the kids ask if we would give them some water. So we sat in the shade for a few minutes before continuing on.

After our surprising trip to the Basilica, we headed over to the Vatican museum. All of the books and our family told us about the long lines here. We were told you must get here early - hours before it opened - because of how crowded it is. When we got there, we didn't find any line. It was midday and we literally walked right in. There was no security line, no admission line, and until we got close to the Sistine Chapel there wasn't even a crowd. Yes, there were people everywhere but no one got in the way and there was plenty to see and do without feeling herded through.

Once we got close to the Sistine Chapel it was more like herding. As in many other parts of our trip to Italy, the people just loved kids. People in line with us were playing with the kids and entertaining them the entire time. I have never seen so many high school age boys happily interacting and playing with toddlers. They weren't trying to impress the girls around them, they all seemed to really enjoy kids. That helped the waiting time fly by.

Once inside the Sistine Chapel spend a few minutes just taking it all in. They are strict with their photo policy and were constantly getting on to people for not following it and we saw them make a few people delete photos. This is one place I want to take the kids when they are older and can appreciate the art as being more than just "pretty."