Day 14: An early start today - breakfast at 6:30am for an 8am start to the guided tour of Vatican City.

We lost Carlos! (again). He was with us at breakfast but disappeared as everyone headed to the bus. They think he went back to his cabin to chuck a $h*t...

We started our guided tour of Vatican City without him... Going through the historically significant places and artifacts representing various events of the Catholic Church throughout history.

The key things we visited were:
Vatican City
1. Sculpture (a copy) of Pieta by Michelangelo in 1499 and the only work by Michelangelo signed by him (in Latin, across the Virgin Mary's chest)
2. "Sphere within a sphere" golden spherical contemporary sculpture by Pomodoro
3. Roman sculpture hall (the entire Vatican City has 50,000 sculptures)..made by various artists in the Medieval period where each piece is worth a small fortune.
4. Octagonal Courtyard - the centre of the Vatican Museum
5."Laocoonte" - an original Greek sculpture 40BC-30BC depicting an important scene in the mythical Trojan war of Laocoonte (priest of Apollo) fighting against the intrusion of the Trojan horse.
6. "Triumph of Christianity" painting (depicting the fall of Pagan statue and the rise if Christ)
7. Greek Academia School: Rafael (black cap), Michelangelo (purple shirt drawing), Pythagoras (teaching Maths)
8. Alexander Borgia V11: the worst pope ever (14th century). Had orgies, drunken parties, didn't do any papel duties. Accidentally died due to taking some poisonous wine (or a successful plot to have him killed)
9. The Sistine Chapel: 1508-1511 Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by himself depicting the Genesis of Christ (making the sun, Adam & Eve, Noah's Ark etc). 1536-1541 Michelangelo painted "The Last Judgement" on the wall directly behind Jesus Christ. Michelangelo's paintings are considered far superior to the paintings painted by Michelangelo's master, which appear more static and lifeless compared to the fluid depictions of Michelangelo's works. Michelangelo was an unknown artist before his paintings in the Sistine Chapel were revealed, and declared the world's best artist. The Sistine Chapel is officially the Pope's personal chapel and also the place where the announcement of the death and election of the Pope is held. A truly remarkable and holy place of worship.
10. St Peter's Basilica: church of Jesus's first apostle, Peter (Pietro), also housing his mausoleum and also where the original of Michelangelo's famous "Pieta" sculpture is housed behind bulletproof glass. The Virgin Mary holding the "infant" Jesus is truly moving! The rest of St Peter's Basilica was grand and amazing!

Then it was off again on our Topdeck coach bound for Venice at 1pm. Still no sign of Carlos though! Apparently he went to the Vatican himself after he asked one of the Topdeck chefs and realized the entire group had left without him! The coach had to leave without him (he'll have to catch a train to Venice himself).

The next "Topdick" award will definitely go to Carlos!!