Day 16:

Today, after breakfast, we set off at 8am to the City of Vantican. Trafalgar tour arranged for us to enter the Vantican museum at 830am and it was a good thing to start the tour early before the multitudes of people came. Imagine that when we finished the tour in the Vatican city and while walking out, we saw that the queue was approximately 400m long. I wondered if half a day would be wasted just by being in the queue.

The most impressive of all was certainly the Sistine chapel. The ceiling of it was painted by Michelangelo and he did it while being suspended in the air. Also, another masterpiece was "The Last Judgement" which was another showmanship of his creativity and masterful hands. His works were really incredibly awesome and to imagine back in those days when resources were few, an artist like him of such great caliber must be of innate talent (Not forgetting that Michelangelo hated painting as his passion was in marble sculpture).

Next, we proceeded to the St. Peter's Square. Unfortunately, there was a conclave that went on between the Pope and the bishops and thus, for obvious reason, we could not enter St. Peter's church, the largest church in the world. But, we managed to take some pictures of the grand St. Peter's church from the outside.

We then went to the Colosseum. It was one of the icon in Rome. Back in the early centuries, it used to be an amphitheatre for gruesome contests between the gladiators and the animals. It was a form of entertainment back in those days as 60,000 plus spectators witnessed the killings insofar as it was cruel, morbid and utterly inhumane.

We were back to the hotel at 2pm plus and were given a break until 4pm (or 430pm). We cooked our maggie mee for late lunch and took a nap.

Then, we met the rest and went on a walking tour. The places that we visited were the Trevi fountain, the temple of Hadrian, the Pantheon and Navona Square. I particularly liked the Pantheon; the interior of it was very much the original Roman structure, as it was centuries ago. Very impressed.

And just before dinner, our wonderful guide, Victor, treated all of us to gelato; five scoops of fruity flavours.

Dinner was wonderful. It was our farewell dinner with our tour guide and tour mates. It was indeed a wonderful tour as over these few days, we got to know a few Americans and some Aussies better. Some were of interesting characters of sorts and there were some old couples who were still as loving after so many years of marriage. One South African couple - especially the husband - was always looking out for his wife. One American couple in their late years were always holding hands. Oh, there was one Aussie family where three generations travelled together - the grandfather, the mother and her daughter. So amazing. Of course, there were many other characters that added on as the vignette to the life of the entire group. We are sure to miss them definitely.

We got back to the hotel about 10pm. Very soon, we were off to bed.