14th September (Diary according to Daniel Hiles)

Lateish start but we did have a hard day yesterday. Set off to Vatican, buy leather wallet on way (Italian memento). Walk along river-really impressive approach to St. Peters basilica. Building inside is amazing-no stained glass but the architecture is awesome. Then to Vatican-again student discount which Liz finally gets by batting her eyelids. Vatican is not what I expected-loads of long corridors with painted walls, ceilings, doors-everything. Eventually get to Sistine Chapel-looks great, the detail is fantastic but the impact is somewhat dulled as we spent an hour looking at painted ceilings on the way to it. Rooms painted by Raphael and chapel= Michelangelo-glad to see the turtles keep themselves busy! After hunger takes over we have lunch, then head for St. Peters to climb dome, boys climb it but Liz and I can't justify spending money so head off. Really humid and legs aching big time= conducive to bad mood formation so we have beer to ease mood. Opted for Pizza for dinner and Liz and I share litre of house vino as we've already had beer of the day. Liz gets bit drunk and we go back while boys go to internet café. Witness huge thunderstorm-even the weather here is awesome. Boys caught in rain and get taxi back-early start as off to Milan tomorrow.