Only Start This Post If You've Got Some Time....

Okay people, get ready for a LONG post!!  We got to tour the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica  while in Rome.  I hadn't expected to be as awed by it as I was.  I am posting a lot of pictures so you can  experience it too!

This is the entrance to the Vatican Museum.  One of the benefits of having a tour guide, in addition to all their knowledge, is that you get to skip the LONG lines, and let me tell you, with it being Easter week, there were some LONG lines.

Thought I would post this picture to show how crowded parts of the museum were.  There was one moment where the crowd was overwhelming and people were pushing and I started thinking, "How badly do I really want to see this stuff?" but then the crowd thinned and all was well. 

This statue is called the Laocoon ~ it is a copy of a famous Greek statue that no longer exists.  Our guide told us that most Greek statues did not survive, so much of what we know about Greek sculpture is thanks to the Romans and the copies they made.  Just to give you some perspective, this sculpture was done in the first century BC!!

There were two whole rooms filled with statues of animals of all kinds, shapes and sizes.

This famous statue is called "The Belvedere Torso" ~ supposedly Michelangelo used it as inspiration in painting some of the figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

As you may have figured out, I LOVED all the mosaics, especially the floors.  This one was HUGE.

There was a large hall of tapestries of incredible size and quality.  There were a couple that had optical illusions incorporated within them ~ this being one of them.  If you looked at it from the left side (pictured), the stone door is angled to the left.  If you looked from the right side, it looked like it was angled to the right.  It was amazing!

I also loved the hall of maps.  At first we thought some of them were upside-down, until we realized they were all painted from the perspective of Rome (they really did think the world revolved around them!).

The Sistine Chapel is the last thing you see before leaving the Vatican Museum.....the build-up is palpable......

and well worth the wait.  You are not supposed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel but I couldn't resist.  I was trying to be stealth, which explains the strange angles.  There is SO much to take in ~ it is more than a little overwhelming.  Luckily, Christina, our guide, had explained a lot of it to us using some diagrams earlier in our tour.  It is hard to describe how I felt  ~ I guess "awestruck" touches on it.  Again, it was such a wonderful thing to actually BE IN a room I had read and heard so much about.  And to think that Michelangelo didn't even consider himself much of a painter ~ he considered himself a sculptor first and foremost.

The famous panel of God and Adam

I loved the detail in this ceiling right outside of the Sistine Chapel ~ angels helping each other. :)

And now, on to St. Peter's...

There are a couple of huge doorways into the basilica, but this is the main one with amazing bronze reliefs on it.  I wish you could see the detail better ~ each panel has a story.

Michelangelo's Pieta ~ one of my favorite pieces of art that we have seen.  There is just something about it that is hard to put into words.  As you look at it, you feel that you are in the presence of greatness....I know that sounds corny, but it felt that way.  It is protected behind glass because in the past, some crazed person tried to damage it ~ made it hard to get a great picture.

To gain perspective on its size, St. Peter's has the length of other noted churches in the world marked to show how much they fall short compared to THIS one.  This is the marking for St. Patrick's in New York.

On our first visit, much of the church was closed off to tourists because they were preparing for Easter services.  We could not get very close to the high altar that visit, but we did on our second visit:

Closer......

Closest!  This bronze canopy by a very famous Italian sculptor named Bernini

is directly over St. Peter's tomb and, according to the guide book,  is 7 stories high!  Everything is so big in St. Peter's that it is hard to get a feel for the scale.  

 This is a replica of a Raphael painting done in mosiac ~ it was amazing.

This inset almost gives you enough detail to show you the intricacy of the mosaic.  It really was breath-taking.

The Swiss Guard has been protecting the Pope since the 16th century and continues to do so today.  I don't think their uniforms have changed much since then either!  Chris worked hard to make this guy smile and succeeded.

Naturally a huge church has to have an equally huge square!  Much of the square was taken up with seating and oversized tv screens in preparation for the outdoor service scheduled for Easter Sunday, so we did not see it in its natural state, but it was still stunning.

In their never-ending quest to burn off energy, Ben and Chris seem (to me at least) to jump over EVERYTHING!!  Ben mastered turning forward energy into upward energy quite awhile ago.....Chris is still working on it.  Thought this little series of pictures would prove my point. :)

First try....

Second try....

Third time's the charm!

The smile of success! :)

This is Christina ~ the wonderful tour guide we had in Rome.   She led us on 3 different tours through ruins, crypts, museums and churches and taught us SO much.  She was very sweet to the boys ~ you could tell she is the mom of a boy!  By the end of the third tour, she felt like a dear family friend.

Our tour of the Vatican was just days before Easter.  When she met us at our apartment that morning, she had brought traditional Easter eggs for the boys ~ this is what Italian boys and girls receive Easter morning ~ so thoughtful.

I wish they were not so subtle with their feelings....it just so hard to tell if they LIKE something! :)

OK, back to St. Peter's ~ there are stunning statues EVERYWHERE around St. Peter's, including one of Peter and one of Paul prominently out front.  This is the one of Paul ~ statues of Paul almost always have a sword in them.

The original St. Peter's was built in the early 300's on the site where Peter was crucified and buried.  It was rebuilt in the 16th century by some big names in Italian architecture ~ Bramante, Michelangelo, and Bernini, to name a few.  This statue of Peter is so old that it predates this second church ~ it was in the first St. Peter's on this site.   It used to be a custom for people to kiss or rub Peter's right foot ~ you can see it is all worn down ~ but now it is guarded and while you can get close, you cannot touch it.

This is called "St. Peter's Throne."  

This is a famous stained glass window above Peter's throne by Bernini....he was one busy guy!  I love the detail of the frame around the window.

Of course, we had to go to the top of the dome at St. Peter's ~ Chris and I get excited about these things....Jeff and Ben not so much!

This is the view down to the floor from about halfway up.  See how small the people are?  This dome is huge!!  And may I just add, designed by none other than Michelangelo ~ he was a busy guy too.  We took an elevator to this level and then headed on up the 323 steps to the top of the dome.

As we got close to the top of the dome, the narrow stairways were slanted.  It felt very strange.

This is the view of the square from the top of the dome, or cupola.  Bernini's double row of columns was designed to feel like arms encircling and welcoming the square's visitors.  The square does not feel this big when you are in it, so this perspective was enlightening.

This photo was taken back down at roof-level.  It is the row of statues along the front of St. Peter's that you could see in the background of the photo of the statue of St. Paul.  I think I read somewhere that there are 140 statues of saints lining the basilica.

The Vatican is considered its own country, with its own postal system and stamps, among other things. It is famous for its unique stamps and this is one.  I brought along a couple of postcards I had written so that they could get the Vatican stamp and postmark.

I figured I should end with a photo of the statue of St. Peter that sits opposite the one of St. Paul in front of the church.  You can always tell the statues of Peter because there is always a key somewhere on them.

St. Peter's and the Vatican Museum were an amazing experience and highlight for me ~ I could go on and on so please ask me any questions you might have.  Hope you enjoyed the tour ~ thanks for sticking with it! :)