Our Life's Adventures: Italy trip- Vatican

On our second day we visited the Vatican, the world's smallest country, nestled among the city of Rome, surrounded by a huge wall. It just so happened that we got there in time to see Pope Benedict XVI, give a speech outside of his window to the crowd below on St Peter's Square. It was impressive to stand in this large open area surrounded by Bernini's 140 statues of saints and be able to actually see and listen to the Pope. Knowing hardly anything about Catholicism, it seemed most unusual to me when the crowd started chanting in Latin.

This is an obelisk pilfered from Egypt and standing as a monument in the center of the square.

I recognized this from the movie Da Vinci Code.

From St. Peter's square we headed into St. Peter's Basilica. This is what I've learned since from Wikipedia:

St. Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world. It is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic sites. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world" and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom".

In Catholic tradition, the basilica is the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to tradition, first Bishop of Rome and therefore first in the line of the papal succession. Tradition and some historical evidence hold that Saint Peter's tomb is directly below the altar of the basilica. For this reason, many Popes have been interred at St. Peter's since the Early Christian period. There has been a church on this site since the 4th century. Construction of the present basilica, over the old Constantinian basilica, began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626.

As a work of architecture, it is regarded as the greatest building of its age. Contrary to popular misconception, Saint Peter's is not a cathedral, as it is not the seat of a bishop. It is properly termed apapal basilica. The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral church of Rome.

Hmmm, my impressions: incredibly fancy, cool marble and gold things, lots of Jesus pics, make sure the children are being respectful, no real comprehension of what I was looking at or why it was important to others, thought the Swiss Guard guys were interesting in their funny outfits, now able to say been there- done that, receiving no profound inspiration ...

On the following day we stood in line for an hour to enter the Sistine Chapel to see the famous painting of God touching Adam's finger painted by Michelangelo. Ted entertained the girls by telling them Michelangelo laid on his back so long while painting the ceiling that his beard had a permanent part running right down the middle of it. It's not true but extremely fun to imagine. Here are some pics of other areas in the museum.