Papal Beauty

Today, we were off to Vatican City to tour the Museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and Piazza San Pietro. Vatican City is actually its own city and country. The Museum is only open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and is the most visited Museum in the world (so...you know what that means up super early).

We used the same tour group (Discover Rome Walking Tours) that we used yesterday, as we felt they had done an outstanding job on yesterday's tour. They did not let us down today, again, doing a very informative tour.

We started our tour in the picture gallery (too many shots to add to the blog). Here is a shot of the 'Apollo Belvedere' marble statue (they indicated this was a 2nd century A.D. copy of the 5th century B.C. original). We also saw the Laocoon, Belvedere Torso, the Gallery of Maps, Raphael Rooms and more.

Sorry about the nakedness but that seemed to be pretty common back in the day!

Here is a shot of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel.

If you look closely you will see the square representing Adam and Eve before and after their sin.

Here is St. Peter's Basilica from the front.

This picture was taken inside St. Peter's Basilica. It is absolutely stunning inside. Unfortunately, I had one picture left on my memory card (since I have taken over 700 shots on this trip), and I had to save it for Joey to take a picture of the Swiss Guards. Otherwise, I would have taken alot more pictures inside.

I gave in and bought another memory card later in the day....for you guessed it....a zillion euros.

This is a picture looking out of St. Peter's Basilica down Piazza San Pietro. We can only imagine the throngs of people that gather here when the Pope gives his service each week.

We made our way over to the Pantheon. It is one of the few buildings that have been perfectly preserved, and is a sight to behold.

To think this building was created in approximately 120 A.D.

Inside, there is a hole in the dome called the oculus. It is open to the outside and the sunlight streams down.

This is a picture of a statue in the Pantheon. The marble work inside was incredible!

It was another extremely hot day here (you gotta love when your clothes stick to you), so we had some gelato on the way back to our hotel. Which was followed by a siesta before we headed out for dinner.