So you know when your in foreign territory and don't know if your being scammed or not.We thought it would be better to tour the Vatican on an organized tour.Michael arranged for it through our hotel; a 3 hour tour, hotel pickup, not more than 20 people, etc. etc.Well, the hotel clerk arranged for a taxi which the tour company would pay when we were dropped off at the meeting point, okay a bit strange.The ride was about 5 mins if that to get there, add 10 mins driving through one way and blocked streets.We made it…but no one to meet us.BIG SIGH!Taxi driver calls the hotel…yes we are in the right place but where is the tour?A man walks up to us pays the taxi; "80 Euro per person" he says.Our mouths drop. "No! We arranged for 50". "Okay 50 it is" We meet up with our group of 20 + 10 others (something not looking good so far).As we were waiting, the tour guide is getting payment from others at 25 Euros, 40 Euros, 80 Euros… what the?It's the same tour. The guide proceeds with her talk and we are missing out because we have no audio thingy that allows us to hear her clearly.Michael is getting just a wee pissed off at this point and starts asking for our money back. Next thing you know we have our devices and off we go, cutting in front of people that have probably lined up for an hour….So our 3 less one hour tour, took us through the riches of the Catholic Church.

Vatican City is the smallest state in the world at just under 44 hectares and one of the great wealth. The Gallery of Maps depicting 16thC history & cartography in a large long hall with massive paintings of the world.Another large hall lined with massive tapestries; galleries of Greek and Roman sculptures, some of which have been castrated and mended with Fig leaves.

The Sistine Chapel which Pope Paul 111 Farnese commissioned Michelangelo's to paint the last judgment on the ceiling; working alone for 7 years until its completion in 1541 he apparently hated pretty much all of it for he was a sculptor not a painter. He took creative privileges by way of a self-portrait on a skin held by the martyr St. Bartholomew as well as a few other pokes.Other frescoes in the Chapel represent the finest works of 15th century Italian artist such as Botticelli.

St. Peter's was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to tradition, first Bishop of Rome and therefore first in the line of the papal succession. Tradition holds that Saint Peter's tomb is below the altar of the basilica. For this reason, many Popes have been interred at St Peter's since the Early Christian period. There has been a church on this site since the 4th century. Construction on the present basilica began in 1506 and completed in1626; it has 11 chapels, 45 alters; has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world, holding 60,000 people; and a wealth of precious works of art salvaged from the original basilica and others commissioned from late Renaissance and Baroque artists; much of the elaborate decoration is Bernini and the dome from Michelangelo. St. Peter's square adorns statues by Bernini an obelisk from Egypt 37AD.