The Vatican

The Vatican was a real treat. While I enjoyed it for all its splendor, I was happy that my Catholic husband had a chance to visit. It seems I'm always late for everything I do, so this should be no different. We were trying to fit in a few more sights in Rome in the morning, so we didn't make it to the Vatican until the afternoon. We were also hoping to get in on a pricey walking tour, but it all worked out. We saved our money by missing the tour and we got in when there were no crowds! We just walked right in! Apparently it's not uncommon to wait in line for a few hours when you arrive in the morning.

We started with the Vatican Museums. I had read somewhere that if you were disappointed in the museums in Rome, you hadn't been to the Vatican Museums yet. How true! We visited the National Museum of Rome, and I question whether they even had a curator on staff. Everything was a mish-mash of ancient antiquities that someone probably found, and it was placed in no random order. The Vatican was not so!

The Vatican had an impressive collection of Egyptian art. (Egyptian seemed quite popular in ancient Rome!)

They also had statue upon statue on hand (and unlike the National Museum, these all had their heads! In fact they had walls of just heads! Now I know where all the heads were on the other statues I had seen in Rome!)

We saw the tapestries and the Raphael Rooms. And of course we ended in the Sistine Chapel... Which was also not what I pictured. Instead of the dome that I always pictured, it was more of a rectangular gymnasium with art painted on the walls everywhere you look. I snapped this picture off and then got promptly ostracized because pictures were not allowed. Hee hee, lucky me! I got a picture of the Sistine Chapel!!!!

We then went over to St. Peter's Cathedral. Wow. The largest in all Europe, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the largest in the world. Pictures just can't do it justice. From a non-Catholic perspective it was very, very impressive... But also a little unnerving to see how the church has had THAT much money. I really don't mean to be blasphemous. I am a Christian and I did take time to sit and pray in this awe inspiring place.