The Vatican

It almost seems sacriligious to try and sum up the Vatican in a blog. So I won't. I am simply going to say that it is as jaw dropping as you might imagine. The technicalities of getting in is a bit tricky. The lines go on for miles. We decided to pay the piper and do a guided tour for about $60 (otherwise its just $13 to get in) just to get ahead in the line but it turned out to be a much better way to see the sights of the Vatican. You could easily walk through and miss details that you should note, without the help of an expert. Matter of fact, I would say you should only go if you take a guided tour. We only saw a small perecentage of the vatican in our full day there but it was impressive. Roman statues are everywhere, we made our way down a long hallway of maps that was akin to the hall of mirrors in Versailles. Of course we went into the Sistine Chapel. It's there that you have to pinch yourself or else think you are in a dream. The chapel isn't huge in comparison to others but it is so ornately painted by sir Michaelangelo that it feels like it goes on for miles. It is rectangular is shape but is divided into sections by an ornate wall. The entire space is painted and the most noted portion of Michaelangelo's work (the fingers touching, symbolic of the creation) is only a small detail of the room but in the center of the ceiling. There are Roman gaurds walking about yelling out "nooo pictures" and shushing people all the while they are snapping away and murmuring. The main basillica to the Vatican is most impressive. Its enormous for one. When you see the pictures of the altar, be sure and look at the people's heads at the bottom of the photo's for scale. Its really indescribable at how enormous and ornate this place is. Anne nor I are Catholic so we learned today that the Catholics truly do put their Sainted Popes bodies on display. For clarification, after a Pope has been buried for three years, the body is pulled out of its tomb. If it has not decayed, then the Pope is sainted then dressed and put into a hyperbarric chamber of a sort and given an elaborate altar space along the nave of the Basillica. Some of these Popes truly are, miraculously, preserved. Some not so much...a little creepy.
The view of the city in front of the Vatican is amazing. Which by the way, the Vatican is in what is termed "Vatican City" as it has its own zip code it is so huge. There is no way to describe it all in detail. Please see the pictures to get a better idea of what we saw.