Today is the 1st June and this is Rome .. makes you think of sunshine and heat doesn't it. Well after leaving our hotel at 8am and taking the Metro to the Vatican City, we joined a very long queue for the Museum. Before we reached the ticket office we had to resort to buying an umbrella from a street trader. It threw it down. We had seen the weather forecast promising rain, but hey, this is Rome and its summer.

Anyway it didn't spoil our day, we spent the whole morning and more in the museum, it has so many wonderful things to see and not only are there wonderful artefacts, but the rooms and the buildings themselves are fantastic. Those of you who have been will know that the circuit around the museum ends by taking you to the Cistene Chapel, which is a whole breath-taking experience in itself. The whole experience was worth every minute of the queuing and the soaking we got. It will be an experience we will remember for ever.

After a short respite with a glass of vino blanco we ventured on again to St Peter's Square, where we joined yet another queue to enter St Peter's Basilica. We were behind a group of English catholics from Coventry which was amusing. The Basilica is just awesome and despite all the tour groups being conducted around, we plugged ourselves into our audio guides and lost ourselves in the enormity and splendour of the many wonderful things inside. What an age it must have been to have lived through when Michealangelo and his contempories were alive, so much talent existed. One of the surprising things we found was the grave of the last of the Stuarts - the famous Pretender and his wife have their memorials there.

All in all it was a trip of nearly 9 hours duration and do our feet know it! Fortunately there is a convenient bar just opposite our hotel where we could refresh the inner man at least. We had intended to be back sufficiently early to start downloading some pictures but alas this was not the case - maybe tomorrow.