5:15 p.m. We are sitting outside a wine bar. Beast has grappa, I've got water, and a Kit-Kat bar. :-) We only did the Vatican Museum today because the line took us over 90 minutes to navigate to the front and get inside.

Back up. We got up between 8 & 8:30 again, showered, headed to breakfast in the hotel & then prepped to head to V. City. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad getting moving today -- my feet hurt & we've definitely got sore muscles, but Beast's back & leg were just a little twingy. So yeah, across the Piazza San Pietro & around to the line for the Museums. We stuck out the line in spite of dozens of offers from tour guides. We were behind a group of 16-ish French kids which was fun, and we spent time making sure we didn't get poached in line. By 1:00 we were finally inside the museum & wending our way through various rooms & courtyards. Not much seemed very familiar from '85 (surprise--not). We ended up pouncing on some benches in the map room where we called Beast to see how he was doing. He sounded horrible and said he was achy, but assured us he's "fine" really. We found the thermometer for him -- in our bathroom -- & he hung up to take his temp. Called back in 5 minutes & said it was 99.3 so hardly awful, but I told him if he really is achy too, he should probably stay home from school. Eric concurred. Haven't heard anything since then. So after the map room we ZIPPED thru several more rooms and then went right in to the Sistine Chapel. Which was JAMMED. There were guards trying their best to keep everyone quiet and reverent. It felt a little Lenin's Tomb-ish at first. Then we looked up.

O M F G

Wow! The sybils are SO clear now, the main/center panels, too -- even tho it was hard to get into it w/ all the other people, it was STUNNING. I could have spent an hour sitting in there. There was a ban on cameras but Beast did get some Flip video. He's actually looking at it right now. (Beast finally texted back -- "Not 100% but ok. Thx for checking in")

I think I am going to stop & have a look. BRB. Yes he did get some video but nothing great -- still we can make stills from it! woot OK, anyway that was pretty much it -- we booked to the gift shop where I bought a few tschotskes & then to the cafeteria for another sit-down. Once we had a little more energy we exited & cross the street and had bread & cheese & a rest in a ristorante right by the entrance/exit. This was followed by wandering to the nearest Metro stop to scope out our trip tomorrow a.m. to Termini to catch a train to Florence.

-- Going to break here & relax a bit more.

6:20 p.m. OK, it's chilly outside so we came back across the piazza to the hotel for a nap before dinner. Or at least to chance to lie down. We noticed last night that there is a pub down the road from us. When we went down @5, it wasn't open, so we're hoping it will open tonight & we can have dinner there. ANYWAY! We trucked back from Ottaviano Metro, following a couple of women who had just arrived (suitcases ahoy). We stopped in Piazza S.P. for a few more photos & then came back to the hotel, footsore again. The bar in the hotel is nice, bu PRICEY. I was hoping to find a place for a drink & peanuts -- we found a place like that yesterday. No luck today. Hence the hope for the pub; we never really had lunch (Sparky texted again that his temp is now 100.5 so it's good he stayed home). That's it for now. Time to chill.

10:25 p.m. So we really did chill -- at Happy Cottage, a pseudo-Irish pub staffed by the most amazing 3 people ever. We had gimlets and dinner with a bunch of German teenagers and some random Italians. OK, I'm more than slightly drunk right now so I'm going to sign off, prob till Florence -- or the train -- at this point.