Our winter Adventure in Rome

Today was the day we booked to see the Sistine Chapel in Rome. I will find out the website, but there is one on which you book the time and date.

This morning we took the local bus to the meeting point, outside where a tour organiser checked our tickets - there were about 20 of us, and took us over to the main entrance.

There I had a bit of a surprise. Instead of a chapel, which I had assumed that was all we would see, we were at the Vatican Museum, or series of Museums. Our guide checked us in, gave us maps, made a couple of brief explanations, then told us that we were on our own!

So off we went. Along corridors, into rooms, and more corridors, long hallways, rooms within rooms within rooms. The Vatican has museums of everything!! Museums of art, sculpture, modern religious arts, mosaics, animal statues, maps.....

The Vatican has recently turned 500 years old. According to wikipedia, there are 54 galleries, or salsas, and the visitor route through the museum takes one through almost every one. Naturally the Sistine Chapel is at the very end, so we saw many other famous and beautiful items, including many paintings and frescos by Raphael. has a detailed writeup of all the famous items here. After our visit, which took a leisurely two hours we went around to St. Peter's Square and Basilica. We spent a little time wandering in the peaceful square and inside the basillica, in which there is a lot to see - and well worth it - we spent a considerable time in the cathedral when we were here several years ago.

The best thing about our visit to Rome this time, was that being winter, there were not many people about. So we saw everything in the museum and churches at our leisure. Just imagine trying to see everything while shuffling along in a huge queue!! No thanks....

We spent the rest of the day strolling and bussing around Rome, enjoying a the Pantheon and the beautiful Trevi fountains. Again, we could do so at our leisure, without pushing through crowds and joining queues.

Then it was off to stroll along the Tiber River. Oh look - are they flowers on the riverside trees? In the middle of winter? Oh, no, its not flowers, it is hundreds of plastic bags and rubbish - all caught in the trees during the recent flooding. And its a good thing we decided not to to do a riverboat tour - the Wharf is all smashed to bits!!

Never mind, I might check out the shops instead - are the winter sales still on??

Travelling to St Petersburg - best time to holiday in Russia

I know you all thought we were mad to visit St Petersburg in the winter. And maybe, after reading this, you may still think so. However, I still recommend travelling to St Petersberg at this time, especially when there is snow about.

Sure, when you visit the Summer Palace of Katherine and other museums in winter you won't see the beautiful marble statues outside, because they will be covered up by wooden casings, to protect them from the cold. But there are plenty of photos of them about. And you won't see the gardens and parks either because they will be blanketet with pristine white snow, and trees will be black, and outlined with white. The fountains will not be going either. There will be no blue skies or much colour outside, apart from various shades of grey, white, light brown or black, which gives everything a dramatic, winter look. And colours of the beautiful old buildings will feature in pale pastels in the winter palette.


But there will be no queueing for 2 hours outside anywhere, no shuffling along in huge crowds and no noisy tour groups. Instead you will be able to gaze at all the beautiful areas inside the palace and other St Petersburg museums and palaces at your leisure,with no interruptions. You will be scrutinised by security guards in every room, disguised as short square bodied, middle aged women, plainly dressed, except for the ones at the Hermitage Museum and Russian Art Galleries. They are better áttired, as apparently these are the places where one can 'catch' a man. Inside all the buildings it is very warm, perhaps a bit too warm for those of us who are not used to the extremes of freezing outdoors and hot indoors.

I strongly believe that the cathedrals, museums and palaces in St Peters burg are best visited in winter. The beautiful buildings are warm and stunning inside. Outside the colours are dramatic and the magic rather surreal. In addition the snow, cold and dramatic colours gives you a better sense of Russia, and the tumultuous journeys its people have been through until today.