A little more on Rome - The Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica (5/8-9/2007)

Just to add a little to Candice's take on the the apartment, the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica...

Just a view of the simple apartment:


Street signs in Italy are located in stone on the sides of buildings - this one was pretty cool: This one leads you along the Vatican City wall about 1/2 a mile around several corners to the entrance.

The Vatican Museam collection is so much more diverse than I thought. Many statues, paintings, ancient maps, busts, frescos, paintings, crypts, urns, mummies, etc., etc., etc...! One interesting statue is this one:
Artemis, the goddess of fertility.

Since no photo's are allowed in the Sistine Chapel (I'll never forget the security constantly shushing the crowded room and sternly saying, "no photo, no photo" anytime they saw someone foolish enough to try to ignore the posted signes), here are a few from from one of the three Raphael's rooms that precede the chapel:









St. Peter's is no slouch either - here's the dome:


And, looking in St. Peter's square, you get a sense of the scale:






Yes - it took three pictures to get all of the square. Now, the entrance:


We took the easy way out to get to the top of the dome - paid an extra 3 Euro or so to take an elevator to bypass about 300 stairs (it was getting late and we were tired already!). At this level, the view of Rome is great, and you can look over the inside of the basilica and see the mass being held below:


However, you still have to climb another 323 to get to the top of the dome - the stairs wind and tilt their way up between the old and new domes. Luckily for us it was not crowded, or it would get quite crazy in there! From the top, the view is like this:


and this (the Vatican Museum is the really long building, the Sistine Chapel is in the foreground):


On the way down the stairs, some idiot decided to write on the walls right in front of us (inspired by the thousands of other idiots) - even though we had just passed a sign that asks not to write on the walls. Nice.

Anyways - it's getting late, so just two more pictures. The first is the awesome Pieta:


And a statue of Santa Elena with Candice, near the alter:


And one more to show the dome from the inside:


Oh Yea - this one's for Candice's sister Anglia - from the National Museum of Rome, gymnastics in the first century:




OK - a couple more - my favorite picture so far - from Trevi Fountain:


And one from the Spanish Steps:


So, we're off to Venice tomorrow - hopefully I can get caught up on the Florence posts soon - Rome was amazing, but Florence is an entirely different amazing experience - much to write about and pics to share....