Day #261 - Vatican City

Roman Colisseum

St. Peter's Square

Papal altar - St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican Museum

Tuesday, November 30th

Today we went to a different country - the Vatican City. We got up and took the metro across the river to the Vatican. We met up with our group around 9am for our 3-1/2 hour morning tour.

We started out at the Vatican Museum. We were first told the story of the Sistine Chapel - as group's are not able to take pictures or communicate while in the Chapel itself. Michelangelo began painting the Sistine Chapel in 1508 - at the age of 33. It took him 4 years to paint the ceiling and 5 years to paint the Judgment Day Wall. This guy was truly amazing - he even lived to the age of 89. His last work was the design of the dome on St. Peter's Basilica. He was a sculpture (David Statue in Florence), an artist (Sistine Chapel in Rome), and an architect (Dome of St. Peter's Basilica).

We spent about an hour walking through several of the different rooms of the Vatican Museum: the 10,000 Statues, the Tapestries, and the Maps. A couple interesting points - the satues were once colored and have since faded, and there have been fig leaves added for coverage on the statues per the request of the pope.

We next entered the Sistine Chapel and spent about 30 minutes gazing at the ceiling and the astonishing detail of Michelangelo's masterpiece. The Sistine Chapel is where the popes have their conclave to determine the next pope. A temporary flume is run up to one of the windows where white smoke will indicate the selection of the new leader of the Catholic Church. There has been 265 popes - the first one being St. Peter. In my lifetime, there's been 4 popes: Paul VI (63-78), John Paul I (78), John Paul II (78-05), Benedict XVI (05-present).

We next walked down into the catacombs where the popes are buried. This place was special. We walked past John Paul II and St. Peter. The catacombs are directly under St. Peter's Basilica. You could look up through these holes in the ceiling and visualize the people walking on the floor of the Basilica. St. Peter is buried directly under the Papal Altar.

After leaving the catacombs, we walked out to the front of St. Peter's Basilica and looked into the Square. We then spent about an hour walking through the Basilica itself. Wow! I've seen a number of churches, synagogues, mosques, etc on my trip throughout Europe. This place was the best of the best -- by far. As our guide described, you can't even realize the size and unbelievable detail here. The letters running across the very top of the dome are 6-1/2 ft in height. They look like small letters - unreal. She said: "Just picture Kobi Bryant up there".

We finished up the tour by walking out into St. Peter's Square. We saw the two sets of colums that are said to wrap around the people inviting them into the church. There are 140 statues of famous saints towering over the columns. 150,000 people can fit in St. Peter's Square. We learned that the Pope comes out 2 days during the week. On Sundays, he waves from the 2nd window from the right on the top level of his residence building. He also comes out for a blessing at 10:30am on Wednesday mornings in front of the Basilica (Kay & I are going to come back tomorrow for this). The Pope says mass in the Basilica on special occasions only: Easter, Christmas, New Year's Day. He also will come out on the balcony in the middle of the Basilica on special occassions: to announce a new pope, etc.

Once the tour was complete, we decided to just walk back over to our hotel. We came upon a bunch of students doing a 'protest walk'. We decided to steer clear of them and head south. Before long, we found ourselves back at the Colisseum. I went in and took a bunch of pictures. This place was neat to see. Construction began between 70 and 72 AD. Capable of seating 50,000 people, the Coliseum was used for gladiator contests, along with mock sea battles, executions, animal hunts, and dramas based on Classical Mythology.

We made it back to our hotel around 5pm. With some heavy touring leaving us exhausted after the past few days, we decided to stay in and rest. Tomorrow is a new day.