Red Mosquito

Chris_H_2 wrote:speaking of the vatican, the museums and, specifically, the sistine chapel, based on all of my visits there going back to 1995, i can definitely say that it's gotten to the point where it's simply unenjoyable and frankly, a borderline skip if time is an issue. the crowds are just too overwhelming (and this is at all times of year).

in speaking with locals and museum guides, the more recent problems stem from two things: (1) travelers are still pent up from covid and are now visiting europe in bigger throngs than before, and (2) the arrival of cruise ships to ostia and them lifting the limits on them in adjacent ports (ever notice the recent influx of seagulls in rome? well, they followed the travelers from the cruise ships). the vatican's stance is that its works should be open to everyone with no restrictions (which, of course, means more money).

the easy solution for the vatican museums is to have two separate entrances. about 75%-85% of people are interested in one thing and one thing only -- the sistine chapel. so they could set up one entrance just to the chapel (and charge the same or minimally less), and another for the museum (those in the latter category could still access st. peter's from the chapel). this would free up a TON of space in the museum and let those that are interested in it be able to actually navigate places without having to be butts to nuts with every other tourist.

make it happen vatican.

pro tip: book the scavi tour in st. peter's which gets you to the original crypts and foundation, including supposedly st. peter's tomb. this will get you immediately into st. peter's without having to wait for hours in the long security line. you cannot book online or through a tour company, but can only do so by emailing the vatican's excavation office. it's a really cool experience, and very few people know about it (i suggested this to dad, but he's an idiot and failed to take my suggestion).

Jorge wrote:Anyway, I'd pick 2. Aisle seat, plus I wanna chat with Moisty

Carl Sandburg wrote:There is a wolf in me . . . fangs pointed for tearing gashes . . . a red tongue for raw meat . . . and the hot lapping of blood—I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fox in me . . . a silver-gray fox . . . I sniff and guess . . . I pick things out of the wind and air . . . I nose in the dark night and take sleepers and eat them and hide the feathers . . . I circle and loop and double-cross.

There is a hog in me . . . a snout and a belly . . . a machinery for eating and grunting . . . a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun—I got this too from the wilderness and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fish in me . . . I know I came from salt-blue water-gates . . . I scurried with shoals of herring . . . I blew waterspouts with porpoises . . . before land was . . . before the water went down . . . before Noah . . . before the first chapter of Genesis.

There is a baboon in me . . . clambering-clawed . . . dog-faced . . . yawping a galoot's hunger . . . hairy under the armpits . . . here are the hawk-eyed hankering men . . . here are the blonde and blue-eyed women . . . here they hide curled asleep waiting . . . ready to snarl and kill . . . ready to sing and give milk . . . waiting—I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so.

There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird . . . and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want . . . and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes—And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness.

O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart—and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where—For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and kill and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.

pepperwhiteMFC wrote:I have a high pain tolerance, trag.

spike wrote:

Chris_H_2 wrote:speaking of the vatican, the museums and, specifically, the sistine chapel, based on all of my visits there going back to 1995, i can definitely say that it's gotten to the point where it's simply unenjoyable and frankly, a borderline skip if time is an issue. the crowds are just too overwhelming (and this is at all times of year).

in speaking with locals and museum guides, the more recent problems stem from two things: (1) travelers are still pent up from covid and are now visiting europe in bigger throngs than before, and (2) the arrival of cruise ships to ostia and them lifting the limits on them in adjacent ports (ever notice the recent influx of seagulls in rome? well, they followed the travelers from the cruise ships). the vatican's stance is that its works should be open to everyone with no restrictions (which, of course, means more money).

the easy solution for the vatican museums is to have two separate entrances. about 75%-85% of people are interested in one thing and one thing only -- the sistine chapel. so they could set up one entrance just to the chapel (and charge the same or minimally less), and another for the museum (those in the latter category could still access st. peter's from the chapel). this would free up a TON of space in the museum and let those that are interested in it be able to actually navigate places without having to be butts to nuts with every other tourist.

make it happen vatican.

pro tip: book the scavi tour in st. peter's which gets you to the original crypts and foundation, including supposedly st. peter's tomb. this will get you immediately into st. peter's without having to wait for hours in the long security line. you cannot book online or through a tour company, but can only do so by emailing the vatican's excavation office. it's a really cool experience, and very few people know about it (i suggested this to dad, but he's an idiot and failed to take my suggestion).

The real Sistine Chapel hack is pay a little more for the evening tour. It was us and like 20 other people in there. Entry to Vatican Museum after, just no St Peters cuz it’s closed by then. Whatever.

Chris_H_2 wrote:

pepperwhiteMFC wrote:I have a high pain tolerance, trag.

Would you go on a cruise with those two?

Chris_H_2 wrote:

spike wrote:

Chris_H_2 wrote:speaking of the vatican, the museums and, specifically, the sistine chapel, based on all of my visits there going back to 1995, i can definitely say that it's gotten to the point where it's simply unenjoyable and frankly, a borderline skip if time is an issue. the crowds are just too overwhelming (and this is at all times of year).

in speaking with locals and museum guides, the more recent problems stem from two things: (1) travelers are still pent up from covid and are now visiting europe in bigger throngs than before, and (2) the arrival of cruise ships to ostia and them lifting the limits on them in adjacent ports (ever notice the recent influx of seagulls in rome? well, they followed the travelers from the cruise ships). the vatican's stance is that its works should be open to everyone with no restrictions (which, of course, means more money).

the easy solution for the vatican museums is to have two separate entrances. about 75%-85% of people are interested in one thing and one thing only -- the sistine chapel. so they could set up one entrance just to the chapel (and charge the same or minimally less), and another for the museum (those in the latter category could still access st. peter's from the chapel). this would free up a TON of space in the museum and let those that are interested in it be able to actually navigate places without having to be butts to nuts with every other tourist.

make it happen vatican.

pro tip: book the scavi tour in st. peter's which gets you to the original crypts and foundation, including supposedly st. peter's tomb. this will get you immediately into st. peter's without having to wait for hours in the long security line. you cannot book online or through a tour company, but can only do so by emailing the vatican's excavation office. it's a really cool experience, and very few people know about it (i suggested this to dad, but he's an idiot and failed to take my suggestion).

The real Sistine Chapel hack is pay a little more for the evening tour. It was us and like 20 other people in there. Entry to Vatican Museum after, just no St Peters cuz it’s closed by then. Whatever.

Exactly how much is “a little more?”

Strat wrote:Went to vatican city once. Left almost immediately. Zero desire to see that place or spend my precious time in one of my favorite countries at such a dump