Vatican City

We spent today traipsing around Vatican City. There are sooo many tourists. I can't imagine this place during the peak season. Our first stop was St. Peter's Basilica. I have never seen such a fancy church, and I don't think I ever will again. It's like, THE church of churches.

St. Peter Statue

This is a statue of St. Peter in front of his Basilica. I learned that he was crucified upside down. I may have known that when I took my Italian Renaissance Art classes in college but now I learned it again. It's much more exciting to be here IN Italy learning about the instead of in a darkened slide room! Around the top of the square are 140 saints, all sculpted by Bernini. You can see some of them in the background of this picture.

The Pieta

Grrr, of course our picture of it is blurry. But it was beautiful! The whole basilica was amazing! Wall to wall with incredible art, each thing could have had it's own room dedicated to it. 

Inside the Basilica

None of our pictures show just how grandiose it is inside. You will just have to come see it for yourself, if you haven't already.

Vatican Museum

March 18

That's the ceiling of the Vatican Museum behind us. Wall to wall to ceiling painting!

Huge Fresco in the Vatican Museum

It was sensory overload for us. So much beautiful artwork to gaze at. We spent all day wandering through halls like this. 

Statue of a Roman God

This is just one of what felt like thousands of statues we saw. Literally there were halls lined with busts and statues of Roman gods. I've never seen so many in one place. 

The Sistine Chapel!!

After walking through miles of Vatican Museum hallways we finally ended with the grand finale-- The Sistine Chapel. Here you can see the famous part of it. It was truly beautiful, a real masterpiece.

Our day of wandering through the greatest works of art was really satisfying for me. I LOVE classical art-- I love the appreciation of the human form and the sheer dedication and passion these artists possessed. It was amazing to see a lot of the works of art I studied in college in real life. I can say it makes a difference. Everything I saw that I recognized was just simply more amazing in person. On a side note, seeing everything really made me want to watch the Da Vinci Code, lol. 

Beautiful picture of the Duomo at night that Phil took

This is our last night in Rome and I am sad to leave. Alas, time, money and thirst for the beach are pushing us south to Naples, where we will hopefully be camping tomorrow night. Rome was incredible-- like a museum that is pretending to be a real city. The food we've eaten is uber delicious, especially after our extended time in the UK. 

Thanks for all the comments! It's makes us feel special to know that people out there care about our meager adventures abroad. :)