Rome: The Vatican

St Peter's Basilica where this outdoor area can hold 100,000 people

When in Rome, the Vatican is a must. We bought tickets in advance online and then set off early this morning to get there with plenty of time to spare.

A collection of Roman busts in one of the galleries

We took the metro to get there, and getting a ticket is easy at the machine. For a ride (or more) within 100 minutes it's 1.50 euros. We just happened to catch the rush hour period so the trains were quite packed, but by the time it was our stop the commuter crowd had thinned out considerably.

Stationed near the metro stations and around the vicinity of the Vatican are volunteer guides who explain the best way to get there and pass out maps. It's a few blocks' walk from the metro station to the entrance and already there were many people there.

The Gallery of Maps from the 16th century

Following a security check and getting an audio guide we were set to go. The audio guide is good in some parts, tedious in others, or didn't have information on things we wanted to know more about.

Nevertheless it's about soaking up as much as you can and also how long your legs and feet can carry you.

Lots of the art in the Vatican was either collected by popes or given to the institution as gifts. Many are artists who hope their works will be received by the Pope; in return they are forever remembered in their association with the papacy.

One modern artist is sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, who created a giant bronze sphere within a sphere to show the Vatican is a city within a city that's placed in the middle of a garden.

Nearby are galleries filled with lots of Roman marble statues; they remind me of characters from stories in my Latin textbooks from high school. The mosaics are also very impressive, some with intricate designs, others telling stories of mythic proportions.

A Chinese text of "The Pope's Decrees"

We had to go room by room, slowly moving our way around the museum in order to get to the main event -- the Sistine Chapel. Everywhere you look there is art with some kind of religious meaning, or made in hopes of exalting Christ.

Meanwhile in the Gallery of Maps, the latest in science and cartography was displayed here, as friar and cartographer Ignazio Danti painting sections of Italy in as accurately geographically as he could as well as artistically from centuries ago.

The room was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII in 1580 and it took Danti three years to complete the 40 panels in the 120 metre-long gallery. However, the ceiling is more impressive, painted by several artists, including Cesare Nebbia and Girolamo Muzanio, featuring "paintings" complete with frames and decorations covering the curved ceiling.

One room featured books that were elaborated decorated, presumably religious texts. In the corner of one display case had a book covered in Chinese fabric with a white crane with cloud motifs and flowers, and written in Chinese "The Pope's Decree".

The Sistine Chapel still looks vibrant and meaningful

Getting ever so close to the Sistine Chapel, we then went into the Raphael Room, where he painted the famous The School of Athens fresco from 1509-1511. Here he connects science with the heavens, and there are several well known figures in here, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Euclid, and Raphael himself. On the opposite side is the depiction of the father, the son and the Holy ghost together as represented by the eucharist.

Another room was called the Matisse Room, featuring several of the French artist's works, that look simple but figuratively clearly show their deep meaning.

Finally we made it to the Sistine Chapel -- security constantly told the crowd in there to be quiet. We stood in the middle, trying to soak up as much of Michelangelo's amazing work as possible. Even after the restoration many years ago, the colours are still vibrant, the facial and muscular expressions impressive.

This is where the cardinals gather after the pope has died in order to vote for the next one. They make four votes per day, two in the morning, two in the evening until there is a clear winner.

The Bramante Staircase at the end of the Vatican Museum

The last few galleries feature numerous gifts popes have received over the years until we finally arrived at the Bramante Staircase, designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932. The staircase has a double helix and is more like a ramp than a staircase. It's so beautiful to look at from above and below.

We then took a break in the downstairs cafeteria before heading to St Peter's Basilica. It was really hot in the early afternoon waiting to get inside. We went through yet another security check before being able to go inside. Our priority was to see The Pieta by Michelangelo. It's behind bullet-proof glass, but is still an amazing sight to behold despite the figures not being proportionally correct and Mary looking much younger than her years.

The Pieta by Michelangelo in St Peter's Basilica

Everywhere you look in the basilica there is so much to take in, it's overwhelming but beautiful and magnificent. You feel so privileged to see all this beautiful architecture and art work in one place. But six hours later, our legs and feet were giving way and we slowly made our way out and back to the metro station to get back to the hotel for much-needed nap!

The Papal Palace in Avignon and Following Van Gogh

Walking towards the Palais des Papes or papal palace in Avignon

It's really hot in the south of France today, hitting 34 degrees, but a friend back in Hong Kong told me temperatures are between 33 to 35 degrees plus humidity. However mornings and evenings are nice here in en Provence, though it's scorching hot during the day.

The Avignon Bridge inspired by Saint Benezet

Before going into the papal palace or Palais des Papes, we saw the Avignon Bridge that spans the Rhone River. It was built due to the inspiration of Saint Benezet, a shepherd boy who heard the voice of Jesus Christ tell him to build a bridge over the river.

He was ridiculed at first, but was soon believed after Benezet miraculously lifted a giant boulder. The bridge was built from 1177 to 1185 and when Benezet died, his body was interred in the chapel above the bridge. It has since been moved to another chapel.

The papal palace was also a fortified fortress

However, the bridge does not go across the river completely -- the water there runs so fast that it was difficult to keep rebuilding the bridge and the lack of funds resulted in giving up on completing the bridge and it has been left as it is since 1669.

The bridge is also famous for the song, Sur le Pont d'Avignon... but I barely remember the lyrics from when I sang it in elementary school!

After a few pictures of the bridge, we visited the papal palace that began construction in 1252. Pope Clement V was elected in 1305 and at the time two Italian families sparked a civil war in Italy, making it unsafe for the pope, and so he chose another place that was a state for the church, that happened to be Avignon.

The palace was also a fortress, and the tower in particular is very protected, as the pope's living quarters were there, as well as the treasury where gold, jewellery and his clothing were kept, and the other "treasury" was the wine cellar.

The Langlois Bridge that van Gogh painted

The pope's living quarters were very lavishly decorated -- there are lots of blue colour on the walls, which originated from lapis lazuli, a semi precious stone, and the floral motifs include lots of birds, as it was believed these creatures were symbols of paradise. Green colours were made from vegetables, notably spinach. His library also contained 2,000 books which was a lot during the 14th century.

Seven popes stayed here and during this time it led to the Papal Schism, where there was a pope in Avignon and one in Rome. Our guide said the two popes had similar outlooks so it wasn't too much of a problem.

But the last pope, Antipope Benedict XIII (antipope meaning the opposition to the pope in Rome), finally returned to the Vatican after Catherine of Siena convinced him to return, and the next pope was elected in 1378.

The amphitheatre is still being used for events like bullfights

The papal palace also has a large austere room where the cardinals gathered to elected the next pope. Instead of smoke, the bells were rung to signal a new pope was elected.

While the last pope took all the tapestries, gold, wine and furniture back to the Vatican, it was sad to hear that during the French Revolution the papal palace was severely damaged, with frescoes destroyed and statues beheaded.

We also got to see the "haute cuisine", or a large room with holes where spits would have been to roast up to seven or eight whole cows at a time to feed 300 people. The French came up with the word "barbecue", as barb means "head" and queue for "tail".

The hospital in which van Gogh stayed in and painted

In the dining area, there was a fireplace to heat up food, and the pope sat opposite the fireplace. He also had an instrument to test food for poison. The pope also figuratively didn't sleep lying down -- it meant death -- so he slept in a chair...

Our next stop was Arles, which was one time was a Roman colony in the 1st century BC. We saw some reminders of the town's Roman history -- the amphitheatre, circus and arc of triumph are still standing and continue to be used today.

Theatres are still used for performances, while the amphitheatre, formerly the location for gladiator fights and races, is now the place for bull fights, with one coming up on July 18.

At the asylum in St Remy is van Gogh's bedroom

But the other important historical importance of Arles is that Vincent van Gogh spent a year here in 1888 and was inspired by the brilliant colours he saw here, and felt the sky was bluer here than in Paris.

He painted such works as Bedroom in Arles, The Night Cafe, Cafe Terrace at Night, Starry Night Over the Rhone, and Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers. We also saw the Langlois Bridge that van Gogh also painted.

Painted Paul Gauguin visited van Gogh, who hoped the two could paint together, but after a while they quarreled, and Gauguin left, due to personal differences (Gauguin was arrogant and domineering, while van Gogh admired him and desperate to make their friendship work).

This was the view from his studio across from the bedroom

Van Gogh ended up in a hospital here, a yellow and blue-trimmed building with a nice courtyard filled with colourful flowers. However he didn't stay there long as other patients felt he was too crazy.

He then went to Sainte Remy in 1889, in an asylum that was a former monastery. It's set in the middle of nowhere really, some Roman ruins nearby, and olive trees. Inside there is an arched hallway and another pretty floral courtyard.

Then upstairs we saw the small bedroom van Gogh lived in, the small bed and the tiled rustic floor, and the window had a view of the countryside -- and in our case we saw a small patch of lavender in the backyard.

The fragrant lavender bushes grown behind the asylum

He also had a small room across his bedroom in which he could paint, and it looked down on the courtyard, though he was also allowed to paint outside with an escort. It's a pity the small museum only houses photographic reproductions of his paintings, not even decent copies like Monet's house in Giverny.

Nevertheless, it gave us a good idea of where van Gogh spent another year here, seeing what he saw, and imagining how he was inspired by his surroundings.

Tragically a year later, van Gogh's mental state deteriorated and on July 27, 1890, he apparently shot himself in the chest, though the gun was never found and there were no witnesses. He died 29 hours later.

A bronze statue of van Gogh with sunflowers

In the last few years of his life van Gogh was prolific, making 43 self-portraits and a number of his now famous works that can be found in Musee d'Orsay, and MOMA to name a few.