Vatican

Found a load of unsent emails. This was from another day...The train from Naples was a bit manic, not just because Naples is like that, chaotic and frenetic, but because a group of passengers without reservations had decided to occupy our cabin. But they were polite enough and eventually left after some more passengers with reservations hurled abuse at them. The weather remained kind and cool so the journey was very comfortable. We (I) got a little lost from the station to the hotel in Rome because I never realised just how close it was. We've been very lucky. Room was okay even if we had to have lunch while waiting. Hotel isn't as good as the one in Naples, but the area around is at least a modern European city with bin collections.

With time still plenty we took a train to the Vatican. The Cistine Chapel has all the queues so we had to skip that and pay our grudging respect to the big Catholic cheese alongside speechless tourists struck dumb by their religiosity. What's the GDP of the Catholic church? I'm not a huge fan of classical painting and Christian imagery doesn't excite me so not too unhappy we missed the obligatory ceiling. Katarina certainly wasn't fussed, but then I didn't sell it very well.

After the Vatican we walked past the Castel Sant'Angelo, closed on Mondays and on to the Piazza Novana. After Naples, walking the streets of Rome really is like a walk in the park. The drivers sometimes even stop at red lights.