The first things that catch the eye are the 15th-century trompe l'oeil wall frescos, where masters such as Perugino, Botticelli and Ghirlandaio depict the lives of Christ and Moses. Then it's the breathtaking ceiling more than 1000sqm, four years of Michaelangelo's life and that image of God reaching out to bestow the gift of life to Adam with the delicate touch of his index finger.
Then the gaze shifts to Michaelangelo's monumental Last Judgment, a mass of portraits showing the ultimate revelation of salvation and damnation. Whether your religion is art or belief-based, it's hard not to be awed by the hushed silence of an early-morning visit to the Sistine Chapel.
When I turn to whisper something deep and meaningful to Joe but he has his head between his knees. Fearing his age and jet-lag have conspired to create his own last judgment, I give him a quick jab in the ribs and ask if he is all right.
WE'RE THREE seats short of a 44-person capacity on our Italian Treasures coach tour of northern Italy an 11-stop, 10-day historical holiday in the company of a group of North Americans of varied hue and humour. This overwhelming United States contingent ranges in age from mid-20s venice beach hotels to mid-80s (Joe is one of five octogenarians), venice beach hotels in politics from the noisy neo-conservatives to the apple-pie-and-picket-fence Democrats, and in enthusiasm from the guide-book-gripping "Oh my gawd" awestruck to the curmudgeonly hotel-room limpet.
The Vatican venice beach hotels visit and an afternoon tour of the Colosseum and Forum are Remo's Day One gift to us. The day panders to those who are there for the religious venice beach hotels highlights and the chance to see the Pope close up (we do), to the historical buffs and to those, like Joe, who want to go back to the old country but let someone else do the driving.
Remo's leadership is delivered with a light touch during our initial forays into friendship. He hands over the reins to a guide at the Vatican and delivers a wonderful narrative about ancient Rome around the Forum and Colosseum, but otherwise urges us to follow his strides rather than his soliloquies.
Remo is a great storyteller. He punctuates his history of the Italian peninsula with detours into art, archaeology, geography and social venice beach hotels anthropology, and the importance of buying into the tour's added extras. A blend of the aesthetic and the pecuniary, he is a true Renaissance man.
Remo's main lesson is that the peninsula's history venice beach hotels is divided into three distinct periods: Rome the city, ruled over by kings, senators and emperors from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD; the Papal States, the religious base for the Catholic venice beach hotels Church, whose influence over the Western World lasted from the 6th century until relatively recently; and the birth of modern venice beach hotels Italy through the Risorgimento, when Napoleon's rule over a collection of cities and states was replaced by a unified country in the mid-1800s.
So, Italy younger than New Zealand, Canada and the US; historically and geographically, vastly more important than the US (that rattled a few cages); and decrepit so decrepit that it would have looked decrepit 600 years ago.
AN EARLY flush of spring venice beach hotels means our travels through Tuscany are pigmented by the pale pinks of fruit and nut tree blossoms, the bright yellows of mimosa, blue-green fields of artichoke and that terracotta-red earth.
venice beach hotels Stops at Pisa, Lucca, Siena and San Gimignano offer the chance to time-travel backwards and forwards between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the chance to photograph towers both leaning and straight, and the chance to witness a rapier thrust of reality in the form of a joint trade-union and anti-capitalist rally against the new Chinese owners of the world's oldest bank in Siena.
Dinner on Day Four is at the splendid Verrazzano Castle, whose battlements look out over the Chianti Rd and whose cellars stock giant barrels of exactly venice beach hotels the type of liquid that will set Joe's tongue venice beach hotels loose and dull the pain for those who have had enough benefit of his experience.
There's a bridge in New York named after him, three bricks from which are embedded in the castle's wall. Apparently, there are three Tuscan bricks in the double-deck span that links Staten Island and Brooklyn.
The next morning is the first time our call to breakfast has not been at a time with a 6 in it. So at 7am on the dot, I'm queuing for the necessary pint of espresso and pile of cured meats and cheeses at Florence's Star Hotel Tuscany.
The last time I was in Florence, I was mugged of everything bar one boot, including a poncho that in my teenage daftness I was particularly fond of. That experience spoiled the thrill of being in the most glorious outdoor art gallery venice beach hotels in the world, so this time, with one eye open for a shifty-looking, poncho-covered thief wearing a single 18-hole German army boot, I was eager to sally forth.
Remo again surrendered his narration to a local guide this time a tweed-waistcoated bookish type who led us (again early enough in the day to bypass the madding crowds) around the Accademia di Belle Arti, which has been home to Michelangelo's David since 1873 and a collection of his mesmerising unfinished sculptures of St Matthew and four Prisoners intended for the tomb of Pope Julio II.
The Accademia is set out like a church dedicated to the majestic David, with the hyper-real venice beach hotels statue set in place of an altar, but the veneration paid to the single artform misses venice beach hotels the point of what Florence really offers.
As for the buildings the magnificent Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is a work of art on its own, as well as being a feat of engineering. When work started on the cathedral in 1296, no-one had the technical knowhow to finish the job with the necessary 45-metre diameter dome. Then goldsmith and clockmaker Filippo Brunelleschi came up with the plan, completed in 1436, to make a two-skinned, venice beach hotels lightweight, terracotta-tiled dome. The result, dominating the city, is known simply as the Duomo, or dome.
From Florence to Venice, Verona venice beach hotels is a lunch-stop visit to see Juliet's balcony, where tourists fondle her bronze nipple for good luck (although I've read Shakespeare's version and I'm certain it did Romeo no good at all) and watch a Sunday parade of ancient Alpha Romeos growl their way past the incredibly well-preserved pink marble 1st-century AD Roman amphitheatre, while groups of hawkers and street entertainers brawl in the weekend sunshine.
venice beach hotels If Florence is an outdoor art gallery, then Venice is an outdoor museum-film set. From the moment your boat slides up the Grand Canal to drop you off at a hotel, the romance of which hasn't changed in half a millennium, it's hard not to think you've somehow adopted the style of George Clooney, the panache of a 1930s Rockefeller plutocrat and the allure of an 18th-century English heir on his Grand Tour.
A full day of St Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace, the Bridge of Sighs and a boat trip to have lunch on the island of Burano thrills the sightseeing senses, but simply whets the appetite. It's the first and only time on the tour when the timetable seems to overrule the subject matter. Venice deserves more time than most (even the Clooneys, Rockefellers venice beach hotels and English aristocrats) can afford and a tour like this is the perfect way to experience the highlights.
The last two days seem quite whistlestop as we tick off 6th-century mosaics in Ravenna, a glorious night in a tiny hotel opposite the basilica in Assisi venice beach hotels and the imposing medieval ramparts of Orvieto venice beach hotels on our way back to Rome.
But Joe's not keen to stop yet. The veteran coach-tourist venice beach hotels is already planning his next venture and he's put off his return flight venice beach hotels so he can go down to Sicily for a few days where he "knows a few people he can look up".
Space is still available on some Globus Italy tours for 2012, with popular tours running until December. See your travel agent to secure your seat today or for more information, go to globustours.co.nz. Emirates flies from daily to Rome from $2538.38 economy return. For more information go to emirates.com/.nz
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