Day 3 - Other side of the Tiber to the Vatican.
We start the day at the Vatican Museum, where the Sistine chapel is located (Sorry no pictures allowed). The museum is absolutely packed with stuff, it seems like everywhere you look there is another priceless something. I guess when you've been in business for 2000 years you have the ability to steal, oops..., collect a lot of stuff. We have some time to kill before heading to the vatican museum, so naturally we take some pictures of the main square, and St. Peter's basillica.
One of the Swiss guards.
You need to be very proper when you visit the Vatican.
Inside the Greek section of the Vatican museum.
This was either a bathtub or a sarcophagus. My guess is you wouldn't want to mix those two up, or you might end up taking a very very long bath indeed.
Marble carving depicting the Trojan wars. Big fuss for three people and a snake.
A lovely carving of a lion.
a Fertility Godess (or the goddess of wonderbra), interesting the things you find in the Vatican Museum.
Ceiling fresco.
This is the map room. Along both sides are frescos depicting the areas under management.
an early scientific instrument for predicting the motions of the planets...didn't a guy named Copernicus get in heaps of trouble for something very similar?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDKdi7aRGls FYI this is the origin of conflict (or uprising) as a definition of Revolution, it did not exist in this context prior to Copernicus and the revolution he began by suggesting the revolutions that he suggested.
Spiral staircase on the exit of the Vatican museum. Names of various Popes are along the side-rails.
Hungry work looking at all those treasures.
After lunch we go back to St. Peter's to go up to the cupola at the top of St. Peter's dome to look at the city. The walk up is very cool. The staircase is built in a space between the inner (mosaic decorated) dome and the outer roof.
The view of St. Peter's square from the cupola.
View of the cupola from the roof level (where the gift shop is.)
The sculptures which ordain the top of St. Peter's from behind....aka bums of saints.
Sun streaming through a side window, very appropriate given the setting.
The washrooms, over there.
This is Bernini's high altar, technically it is a balachin. Cast in bronze it is something like 90 feet tall. It is positioned directly under the dome of St. Peter's, and directly above St. Peter's tomb.
This sculpture, the Pieta by Michelangelo, is really something to see, completed when he was just 24 years old, a true masterpiece - one you can tell just by looking at it, you need to know nothing about art. Just stand there and wonder why the marble isn't moving, it looks like it could.
Cherubs, who doesn't love 'em.
One of the highlights of the trip. This Gelato store was steps from our hotel, and had some of the best Gelato in the city.
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