Initial research...

For anyone who knows me well, it should come as no surprise that I'm pretty excited about planning and researching this new adventure.  Unlike my previous trips to Europe and the UK, I'm not doing an organised tour this time around.  Instead, the plan is that I'll pick a couple of places that I want to visit or re-visit and base my adventures around these locations.  So having months of preparation time is pretty handy given I'm very much a typical ISFJ (Myers Briggs type).

After narrowing down my dates to October/November (mainly due to the cheaper flights), I started my research pretty much straight away.  One of the things I soon discovered was that U2 was scheduled to end the European leg of their tour in Rome on October 8th, so it didn't take much for me to decide start my holiday in Rome.  Luckily the concert wasn't sold out, so I jumped online and ordered my ticket (thankfully the site had an English translation).  It was all pretty simple and the good news is my ticket has arrived.  So that's one thing off the list.  

Last year, mum & I only had a day and a bit to explore see Rome, and while we got to many of the major sites (Colosseum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, Vatican & the Roman Catacombs), our time was very limited.

I'm actually quite excited about spending more time in Rome, especially the Vatican as the morning we were there it was rainy and quite dreary.  While I'm not what you could call 'overly religious', my good catholic upbringing means that the Vatican is a place I'm really looking forward to have the opportunity to explore further, if only in the hope of seeing the Swiss Guards in something other than their rain gear.

My on-line research (I ♥ GOOGLE) on the Vatican lead me to discover the SCAVI (excavations) Tour which many consider to be one of Rome's hottest tickets. The tour, which goes beneath St. Peter's Basilica to the tomb of Saint Peter, only allows around 250 visitors per day to enter, in order to preserve this historical, archaeological site as there is limited space around the venerated tomb of the Apostle Peter.  And just to be clear, this isn't the crypt, or "Vatican Grottoes" (which house the tombs of scores of popes including Pope John Paul II) that many tourists visit, this tour goes to what is known as the sub-crypt, or "Vatican Necropolis".

Reservations for the SCAVI tour have to be made months in advance due to the limited availability so   I sent off my email and yesterday I received confirmation that I've got a reservation which is pretty exciting.  You can see a virtual tour of the necropolis and the tomb of St. Peter here.

Further updates will happen along the way so keep watching...