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| Rome, Christmas 2002 |
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| Gallery of Maps, 2020 |
The Vatican doesn't change in 20 years, but some tourists do.
We employed a tour for today's Vatican visit. With a tour guide you can skip the lines but not the crowds. Our guide did say many times, "You are lucky there are not many people today". And, actually it was very manageable with only the occasional large group of mask covered Chinese. In the photo above, we are in my favorite area, the Gallery of Maps. This gallery is 131 yards long, and it is AMAZING. Yes, there are fresco maps of Italy on the walls of this gallery. But the ceiling was what wowed me. Elsewhere, we saw the usual high points which were the Raphael rooms, the Sistine, and St Peter's. When we were here some 20 years ago, the Sistine's ceiling had not been cleaned. Today we were able to see the vibrancy of Michelangelo's original works. We had a nice group of 10, all Americans. Pictures galore at flickr.
Observations of two visitors.
People are now wearing masks.
Churches
St Peter's Basilica
