We started today at the Vatican City. The smallest sovereign nation in the world, Vatican City, comprises just 1 square kilometer on the west bank of the Tiber River.
After waiting in one of the longest lines I have ever seen, we finally got into the Musei Vaticani (Vatican Museum). This museum contains a vast collection of art and treasures collected by the popes throughout the years. Through the breathtaking Galleria delle Carte Geografiche (the Map Gallery) and the Gelleria degli Arazzi (the Tapestry Gallery) are the Stanze di Rafaello. Once the private apartment of the pope, the walls and ceiling are decorated with frescos by Raphael. Here Rich poses in the Map Gallery with the map of an Italian island that is close to our hearts…
We found the ceiling of the Tapestry Gallery to be even more impressive than the tapestries…
They save the Sistine Chapel as the last stop on the self-guided museum tour. Supposedly no pictures are allowed in the Sistine Chapel, yet flashes are going off all around you. We tried to adhere (slightly) to the no photos policy and turned off our flash. Here was the result…
Once a private papal chapel, this building was constructed in 1473. It then took Michelangelo four years to paint the Creation fresco. This is probably the most famous portion of that fresco…
Twenty-four years later, he painted the Last Judgment fresco over the alter.
After exiting the museum and the chapel, visitors can choose to go down into the crypt or up into the duomo (dome). For seven euros, an elevator goes up to the roof and visitors can then climb 323 steps to reach the top or for a mere four euros visitors can climb 551 steps to the top of the duomo. We climbed ALL the steps! Here Rich and I pause before continuing the second half of the climb (where the elevator drops everyone else off)…
Inside at that level, you can look down into San Pietro’s Basilica (St. Peter’s Basilica) and walk along the edge of the interior of the dome. From below these mosaics look tiny, but up close they are huge…
Taller than a football filed is long (120 meters), it was a sweaty painful climb, but the views from the top were well worth it – the city of Rome, the Vatican grounds, and the Piazza di San Pietro (St. Peter’s Square)…
After descending from the duomo, we entered St. Peter’s Basilica. There has been a church here marking the legendary spot where St. Peter was crucified and buried since Constantine’s reign in the 4th century. The main altar sits directly over St. Peter’s tomb and under Bernini’s 13 meter tall bronze canopy…
We exited the basilica through Piazza di San Pietro, a remarkably beautiful square designed by Bernini and laid out in the 17th century…
From Vatican City, we headed over to the area of the Roman Forum. First stop, the Colosseo (Colosseum). This 2000 year old structure is a prime example of great Roman engineering…
Similar to Texans, Romans were into everything “big.” By putting together two theatres, they were able to create an amphitheatre that would hold 50,000 people. The floors of the Colosseum are missing exposing the underground passages where wild animals were kept and lifted up in elevators...
Set in a valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills throughout the era of the kings, the Republic, and the Empire, the Foro Romano (Roman Forum) was the political, religious, and social centre of the Roman world…
One of the most interesting spots in the Forum is the Tempio del Divo Giulio or Ara di Cesare. As legend would have it, this temple was erected by Emperor Augustus in 29 BC on the very site where Caesar’s body was burned after his assassination…
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