Vatican City (Mon July 23)

We were up bright and early and off to our meeting with our guide for a tour of the Vatican Museum/ Sistine Chapel/ St. Peter's Basilica.  Rome has been in the throes of a drought and hasn't had rain in almost a month.  Good thing we came...they may start calling us the rainmakers!

Outside the Entrance to the Vatican Museum.   

The Vatican Museum was great.  Even though they have 30,000 visitors per day, it is much better organized than Versailles or the Louvre.  We expected to be crushed in a mob of people but crowd flow was not bad.  Sure, there was a crowd, but you had enough time and space to see the things you wanted to, even the Sistine Chapel.  We also had an excellent guide, Francesca Caruso.  She was our best guide yet, and worth every Euro.  Photos were not allowed in the Sistine Chapel and elsewhere we were so engaged by Francesca's commentary and the objects themselves that we often just forgot to take pictures.  Thus, pictures today do not adequately represent the richness of the experience--apologies to our faithful daily readers!

The Popes collected a lot of Roman sculpture.  Most of the stuff in this hall pre-dates Christ.

They had some fine looking hair-dos!

The view from the Vatican Museum, from what was at one time the Pope's summer villa.

The Laocoon.  It's famous…ask an art person for more details.

An ornate ceiling

Scott went gaga over this one.  It's a giant stone basin sculpted out of a single block of porphyry brought all the way from a quarry in Egypt.  Built for the palace of Nero.  Porphyry is really hard, not quite as hard as diamond but much harder than marble, and really hard to work with.  But this piece is perfect.  Additionally, a single piece that large is almost impossible to find.  This should be much more famous than it is--this is better than the Hope Diamond!

The Romans made these awesome mosaics.  Even more impressive is that they are made out of little pieces of marble, rather than glass, so the variety of colors was really difficult to put together.  This 3-D detail is in the floor under the basin, which originally was part of a bathhouse swimming pool.

Would you guess that this was 2000 years old?  These guys rocked!

 After you visit the Vatican, you realize what the French kings were trying to copy at the Louvre and Versailles.

The Sistine chapel was on this segment of the tour but there were strictly no photographs.  The artificial lights are almost always off to protect the paintings and it was overcast outside so it was a bit dark, but it was still amazing.  Next we filed through the line to get into St. Peter's.

Shuffling through the brief line to get into St. Peter's Basilica.

It is breath-taking inside.  

Those letters at the base of the dome are 7' tall.

Michelangelo's Pieta.  He did this when he was 24, out of a single block of marble.  A popular interpretation is that this young looking Mary is actually holding her baby Jesus, and for a moment can see what will become of Him.  With one hand she holds Him, but with the other she lets go because she knows what needs to happen…we got a little teary.  

The altar beneath the dome which sits on the bones of somebody who might be named Peter.

The statue of liberty could fit inside the dome.  The bronze altar is as tall as a seven story building.  

800 years of rubbing St. Peter's feet for good luck have worn off his toes.

The twisty columns on the altar copy the design on some of the stone columns from the pre-1500 St. Peter's.  Those were rumored to have come from the ruins of the temple in Jerusalem.

The Swiss Guards

In the square

The modern residence of the Pope.  Pope's apartment top floor, far right.

Top of the Sistine Chapel

The boys, overcome by the thousands of years of history that have occurred on this spot.

Afternoon nap.  Looks like we have been wearing them out.

It rained some more, but we did venture out for a good dinner.

Given the rain we have taken a cab a couple of times so far.  Driving here is crazy and the taxi drivers are maniacs.  It's a bit like Ben Hur and the chariot races!

Tomorrow:  The Coliseum and Roman Forum.  Hail Caesar!