St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, showing the massive courtyard where the Pope gives mass every Sunday and on special occasions.
I'm not even going to begin to explain how hot it was and how long the line was to get through the metal detectors to get into St. Peter's. And you know with my sweating issues it was not pretty!
This photo isn't the best because I didn't bring my SLR with me on the trip. I know, I know, if there's any time to bring the damn thing it would have been to ROME, right? But i didn't want to risk it with Ryanair's strict baggage policy. However, I included it to show the size of the Basilica's main hallway compared to the people. It has the largest interior space of any Christian church in the world!
These are actually light phenomena that regularly occur at St. Peter's called crepuscular rays. Catholics interpret them as "holy" I think.
Even the ceiling is amazing.
La Pieta by Michaelangelo is in the Basilica, along with countless other amazing statues, most of them many stories high. Acording to some research I did, it's behind glass in one of the first chapels when you enter the church on the right because in 1972 a geologist named Laszlo Toth began chipping away at the piece with an archaeologist's hammer as an act of vandalism. As chips of marble fell to the floor, other churchgoers ran off with them!
After St. Peter's, it was off to the Musei Vaticani, which costs 8 euros and is about a 12 minute walk from the church. Access to the museum - which is SO worth it, includes access to the Sistine Chapel, or Capella Sistina. It was begun as popes began to more and more use the vast fortune of the Catholic Church to buy and commission art. A rare gem, a good idea from the Catholic Church!
This is the hall of maps at the Musei Vaticani. The hallway was built for the sole purpose of having an arist fresco maps of Italy onto the walls. There are 40 of them total and they were painted around 1580. However, the really really really amazing cool thing is the ceiling. As I pointed out before, the ceiling of St. Peter's is quite amazing. But this one really takes the cake. Why? Because the hallway is 120 meters long - and a football field has 10 less than that.
See what I mean?
The museum also houses countless works that anyone would recognize. This one, The Lacoon Group, is my favorite. Imagine, the piece of stone has been carved in this way for over 2000 years, and it's sooo intricate and the people have such emotional looks on their faces. It's one of the clearest "masterpieces" I've ever seen in my life.
Also interesting is that the sculpture is not meant to be viewed from any other angle than straight-on. When viewed from the sides, it loses some of its drama and appeal.
The one photo I got of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. As I'm learning is the case with many of the things you really want to take pictures of, you aren't allowed. Oh well. It was breathtaking, though. Definitely the coolest thing I saw in Rome.
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