Last day in Rome

Today we go to the Vatican museums, which includes the Sistine Chapel. We purchased our tickets online a couple of days ago. When I got to the payment page, it asked for my password (not my PIN) for my Visa. What's this... I have never been asked for a password before. I got on the phone to Visa and the representative was able to walk me through creating a password. Apparently, it's a new security system for online purchasing. In the event that my card gets stolen, it can't be used to purchase anything online. Now the only challenge is for me to remember it; there are so many passwords these days. Ok, now let's buy two tickets to the Vatican museums. The lady at Visa stayed on the line with me to make sure I was able to purchase the tickets. Mission accomplished! This is what we have been looking forward to. If the weather holds out too, we will climb the dome. It's a good thing we bought tickets in advance because the line up just to buy tickets was three hours. Being the smart travelers we are, we didn't have to wait; we just walked in. The museums are a series of rooms you walk through where you can admire different artists' works, such a Rafaello, Bernini, Leonardo Davinci, and other famous artists. Some of the rooms are so long that with the leisurely stroll and stopping to admire the art, it takes five or 10 minutes to walk through. One room was very long, and the ceiling was amazingly beautiful. The frescoes on the walls and ceilings made me want frescoes on the ceilings of our new house, but I don't think that style of painting is done anymore. Now for the pièce de résistance - the Sistine Chapel. The room is kept a bit dimmer than the other rooms; otherwise, the frescoes will fade eventually. The room was absolutely exquisite. Taking pictures or video is absolutely forbidden in the Sistine Chapel. It says that at the door and you can't miss the announcer on microphone saying it too, but there is always one stupido snapping a picture. What would you do with it anyway. Some people are so selfish and disrespectful. Each fresco tells a story, and each story is interesting. I'm getting an appreciation for the stories in the bible. Arrigo makes it interesting. We were admiring the Sistine Chapel for about 20 minutes - I almost didn't want to leave. When we left, we went to climb the dome, but it was closed by the time we got there. If we hadn't stopped for pizza in the cafeteria while we waited for the rain to subside, we would have made it on time. We can't do it tomorrow because we leave for Sorrento tomorrow morning. It was disappointing, but we did get a good view from the castle the other day. As we walked back to our hotel, we went for a walk along what was known as the "Dolce Vita" walk. Arrigo was so sweet and waited patiently as I shopped. I love some of the clothes in Italy, but I have come to be uncomfortable shopping here. They shop differently in Italy. They don't like you to touch anything before you buy, and I like touching what I am interested in buying. I also like to try clothes on and if the clothes don't appeal to me, I won't buy, but they expect you to buy here. I feel guilty to just touch and take my time. We bought some leggings for me and Abi. My feet were so sore that I just wanted to get to the hotel so I could put my feet up and rest. I obviously brought the wrong shoes with me. We finally found our way to the Metro and we stopped at a pasticeria we came across totally by accident last night. The food is so good that we got take-out two nights in a row. We went back to our hotel to eat the food we bought and it was perfect timing that we were able to FaceTime Abi. She was so excited to talk to her Dad and me. All-in-all today was a successful day. We have now done it all in Rome. It is a busy city with tons of people and beggars. I don't think I would come to Rome again. Been there, done that. We like the smaller towns with narrow streets and less people. Rome's traffic is crazy, but we have yet to see an accident. It makes us wonder why they have those crazy police sirens going off every 10 minutes; I think it's just so they can get to where they're going faster.