For the last leg of our Europe Trip, we sure do walk a lot. We visited the Vatican on the last day in Rome. As mentioned, we pre-purchase the Vatican entrance ticket due to the infamous complaints that the queue is very long. We left our luggage at the hotel when we checked out. For lunch, I and Su manage to bring along the rice and chicken from yesterday as packed lunch. CB and Dila decided to buy from the vendors at Vatican.

We get to Vatican by using the Metro in Rome. We disembark at the nearest station to the Vatican. From here, we walk. Don’t worry, you won’t get lost since you only have to follow the crowd. Vatican is easily distinguish by the tall Vatican walls.

At the first sight of the wall, we can see the famous queue line. We proceed on the right lane, straight to the Vatican entrance where they indicate passage for E-ticket. Our queue doesn’t take long, about 5 minutes or so. Inside, our e-ticket was converted to the museum pass at the counter. Prior entering, there will be an X-ray scanner. Foods are off limits so we left our food at the counter to be picked up later.

First, we enter the Vatican museum. Queues are long here because we merged with everyone else, so be patient. It was so crowded. The musei is very big and some places, there is only one way traffic. So, you have to follow the crowds.

We are quite unlucky to be stucked behind a huge tour group that stopped at every map in the Map Room. By the way, map room is my favourite room in the Vatican. We see many artifacts from other civilization including a real mummy! We have splitted – CB went with Dila and Su and I are together. There is no chance of getting lost because each room at the Vatican musei will direct towards the Sistine Chapel.

I can summarized my experience in Vatican museum as being in a sardine can. Packed and crowded. There is no chance for you to stop to look at pieces a little longer. It was uncomfortable. We did not enjoy ourselves here as we enjoy being in the Lourve.

We finally regrouped and headed towards the Sistine Chapel. In here, there are no photographs allowed. Sistine Chapel is beautifully preserved. There is a lot of people lingering in here, I guess to rest their feet a little bit. We then go out of the musei and walked to the St Peter’s square. Basically Rome and Vatican are made famous by the book adaptation movie, Demons and Angels. I think there might be some service that morning because the square are filled with empty chairs. We intended to go inside the St Peter’s Basilica, but looking at the crowd and the long lasting line, we chickened out.

We basically go out the Vatican and seat under the tree to have some lunch. We then walked together and head back to our hotel. The owner was kind enough to keep our bags. We pick up the luggage and proceed to Roma Termini to board the airport bus. We know realize that this is the end of our magical trip. There were mixed feelings – we are tired, sad, accomplished and happy at the same time.

At Roma Termini, we went to the Terravision counter to buy the shuttle ticket to the Fiumicino Airport. In Rome, there is 2 airports – Fiumicino and Leonardo Da Vinci. Be careful when you buy tickets. We board the bus and head to the airport. After checking in, we manage to pray at the Multi-faith Prayer’s Room at the airport. We grabbed some snacks while waiting for our delayed flight to Paris.

After 3 hours flight – we sleep all the way due to exhaustion, we arrived at Orly. I called our hotel in Orly to pick us up. Kat sini la kitorang belajar guna public phone untuk dial local number. Setelah 2 kali cuba akhirnya Berjaya jugak.

 

Our bunk bed

The hotel’s shuttle was efficient. They have a big van and the hotel is just 15 minutes away (the hotel transfer is free). Checking in, the hotel was as depicted in the website. The decors are new, it was very spacious and very clean too! CB and Dila decided to sleep and packed in the morning while Su and I packed it that night. After packing, we sleep peacefully.