The Vatican

OK, in the last two posts I gave you a quick overview of our trip. I thought now that I would go into a bit more depth on each part of the trip, and get a few more pictures put up. If I double up on some pictures that I've already put up, sorry about that, but I do that sometimes.

So, Rome was the first city we toured, and it was amazing. It's really the most fascinating city I've ever been in. Our ride from the airport to our hotel was breathtaking. Let's just say that I now understand why Italian Formula One drivers are so good. They learn to drive in Rome! Speed limits, traffic signals, lanes on the road; all simple suggestions, really. It was quite frightening. But fun.

Traffic is a problem for them also. On any given day, there are 4 million people in Rome, 2.5 million cars, and 850,000 scooters. There are only 250,000 parking places! As our guide said "Romans don't park their cars, we abandon them, then pray All Saints that we find them again!" Here's a shot of some parked scooters to give you an idea.

Our first stop was the Vatican Museum. A completely amazing place! It was amazing to see how much art was in there. It was non stop. Here are a few pics to give you an idea.

Even the ceilings were incredible.

As we walked through the museum we just kept finding more and more fantastic art.

Eventually we made into a hall that was full of tapestries. These were made with such exquisite workmanship and detail. This hall was very dimly lit, to preserve the tapestries. However, with it so dark and not being able to use a flash, what you can't see is that much of the thread used in these tapestries is solid gold. Actual gold thread woven into the tapestries. Wow.

This is a picture of Cindy and Melissa by one of the tapestries to give you an idea of size. They were beautiful.

There were also some paintings on the ceiling. Now, when you look at these pictures (and when we saw them there) they look like 3 dimensional carvings or something. Not at all, they were just painted so well that they look 3 dimensional!

Once, again, even the ceiling was fantastic.

So, after going through the museum, we were shown into the Sistine Chapel. Famous for its ceiling painted by Michelangelo. It has recently been restored to clean off the centuries of soot from the burning of candles. It was incredible. The problem is that there were no pictures allowed. So, you'll have to google pics of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and imagine what it was like to be there. Sorry.

After that, we were on our way to St Peter's Basilica. Once again, it's nice to finally see something in person that you've seen in pictures or on TV so often.

But, inside the Basilica was awe inspiring. I don't know if I'd be able to attend church services in a place like that, because I'd be distracted by all the artwork and such. But it is definitely a beautiful chapel.

Like this mosaic tiled with 24k gold.

Or this statue by Michelangelo, "The Pieta", or The Pity. It shows when Mary lowered Jesus off the cross. Can you imagine this in your chapel?

The rest of the Chapel was amazing, and huge.

To give you an idea of the scale of this place. In the picture above, look at the strip of gold with the Latin writing. That is a tile mosaic. The gold is actual 24k gold tiles, and the letters are 6 feet tall. That's right, 6 feet tall!

And then, there was more art!

They even had a nativity inside the chapel. It was pretty cool. And then on our way out, we happened to bump into some of the Swiss Guard that are the security forces for the Vatican. They are the traditional guards for the Pope, and they can only be selected if they are born in Switzerland and have attended the Swiss Military Academy, and they are the best of the best, think Navy SEALS type guys. Their uniforms, as odd looking as they are, were actually designed by, yeah, you guessed it, Michelangelo!

We truly enjoyed our trip to Vatican City. I can't say enough about it. I was thoroughly blown away. It was a day I'll never forget. My next Italy post will be about the rest of Rome that we saw that day, including the Colosseum, which is very impressive.