Vatican City

See the first posts here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

After we walked around the Colosseum, we headed to our Vatican City tour. While we were waiting for the rest of the group, we noticed we were standing in front of a 1 Euro store. For some reason that cracked us up, so I took a picture of the sign.


After we met our tour, we headed to the Vatican Museum to start our tour. We couldn't take pictures in some of it, so I just have a few good ones. I have forgotten the names of all the pieces and paintings I took pictures of, so I'll just show them to you without much commentary.






After the museum, we went into the Sistine Chapel. We were ABSOLUTELY not allowed to take pictures in there, but it was actually nice to just be in there and LOOK. My neck was immediately sore and I started feeling bad for Michaelangelo. It was a stunning place and extremely over-stimulating with all the detail work. I think you could just stand and stare for hours.

After the museum, we headed into St. Peter's Basilica.


This is the best picture we have of Michaelangelo's Pietà. It is behind glass now to protect it, so really hard to take a good picture of.


More pictures of the Basilica. It was very Vatican-ing (aka - a little "much"), but incredibly beautiful nonetheless.





After the Basilica, the tour was over, but Jerod and I headed down to the Pope's tombs. We wanted to mainly see John Paul II's tomb. It was crowded and a lot of people were there, so we saw it quickly and left.

Oh, and just a side note. The pope was on "holiday" while we were in Rome, so there was not even a chance of us catching a glance....bummer.

Tomorrow, I'll post about our day trip to Naples and Pompei.