Day 18 Vatican Museum, Colosseum, How to test your patience!

We took the bus this morning to the Vatican Museum. I've been there before, a few times, so I know it gets VERY crowded. We bought our ticket online, skipped the huge line and walked right in. That was one of the highlights, sadly!  I was there last 10 years ago. There were cellphones then, so it shouldn't be that different. But, WOW, people just have no respect for anything or anybody anymore. It was so hard to see anything because of the huge tour groups and the people standing in front of everything taking selfies or posing with their friends with no regard for the other thousands of people waiting to see the same thing. It seemed like so much work to see even the highlights of the museum. It just wasn't very enjoyable, and that's sad to me!  We finally made it to the Sistine Chapel, and I was so excited to see it, but more than that to watch Emily see it for the first time. The crowd inside was so overwhelming at first that I was beginning to think that even this is going to be a disappointment!  You can't take pictures in there and you're supposed to be quiet!  Of course, nobody listened, people were taking videos and talking loudly to whoever would listen which would get the security people to yell over the loudspeaker or run to stop the picture takers. Then you'd see the smug smile on the people's faces when the security guard left, like, "I got my picture and I'm so proud!"  I wish the guards would erase their pictures! That'll make them stop!  Fortunately, we found a nice place to sit together and just take it all in!  It's incredible!  It's so beautiful, and when you take into account the physical labor it took for one man to do it all, six stories up, craning his neck for 4 years, it blows my mind!  The Last Judgement is my favorite part though!  It's a dark, scary wall of art!  But it's powerful!  I kept thinking all you people taking pictures and thinking you're so slick, LOOK AT THAT OTHER WALL!!!  LOL Complaining aside, it really is one of the greatest works of art by one man in the world!  Michelangelo had no help at all!  That's nuts!  We hopped on the Metro after that, definitely made us long for the Paris Metro!  All Metros are better than walking miles and miles, but damn, Paris has a great one!  Rome's is functional, but only is of limited help. It got us to the Colosseum though!  The Colosseum, a must see sight in Rome, but what a pain!  SO many people!  We had our Roma Pass which lets us skip the line and get in for free, but even with that, the security took forever!  Then, once we got in, anywhere there's a crowd, the people just have no regard for anyone else. It really is awesome, but you need a lot of patience!  We spent a good 90 minutes walking around taking pictures enjoying the views and trying to find peace. We did the best we could then we left to check out the Forum, even though everything we read said they were open until 7:00, apparently it closed at 4:30 so we missed the Forum today.  DAMN!  We tried to walk to the Elevator in the Sky, an elevator to the top of the Vittor Emmanuel Building that gives you probably the best view of the city. But, they are building a new 3rd Metro line in the city and the construction blocked the way to get there from where we were so we just said forget it, enough is enough and headed home. On the bus home we got a phone call that our Puppy, Bubba, my baby, tweaked his back again. That was the only thing I was worried about leaving him for a month. It doesn't seem bad or anything, but I've always been there for my boy since he was 9 weeks old and he always looks for me to make him feel safe and secure when he's hurting and scared. So, I feel very guilty and am very worried about my little guy! 😪. It's funny how important our animals are to us!  I never thought I'd care so much for a little animal!  So, it's been a stressful day!  They can't all be perfect!  We will all get past it. We didn't feel much like running around and eating a big meal, so we went downstairs to the restaurant below our apartment that we went to when we first arrived here in Rome. It was very good, and you can't beat the price or the service!  We have an early morning tomorrow. We are touring St Peters Basilica and we are touring the necropolis underneath it to see St Peters bones. Should be really great. So we are in bed early!  Tomorrow will be a better day! :). We love you all and thanks for reading!  Especially with all the complaining!! LOL