Day 14: Rome and Vatican City

The majority of this day centered around Vatican City. We started in St. Peter's Square which was much bigger than I had imagined.

With four miles of displays, the Vatican Museum is one of the top showcases of art in Europe. It was exhausting but spectacular. Of course, the Sistine Chapel is here, but unfortunately they would not allow photographs. That didn't stop the majority of people from snapping photos, but I gritted my teeth and stayed strong. What a vivid, masterful work by Michelangelo. I was duly impressed.

St. Peter's Basilica. The sheer scale of this cathedral is hard to put into words. There are markers at various places on the floor to show where the largest churches in Christendom could fit inside it. It is spectacular. I'm running out of adjectives, but it definitely took my breath away. Jared and I kept saying "wow" and "oh, man" and "holy smokes" (ok, that was just me).

We also climbed the dome, which was a fantastic (and spine-bending) culmination to the tour.

This is one of the ceilings in the Vatican museum that stretched on and on.

Most of my photos of St. Peter's wouldn't do it justice. The dome, for example, looked like an amazing fresco. When we climbed the dome, however, it became clear that the whole thing was an enormous mosaic. Here's a cherub up close.

Here's the same cherub a little closer. Can you imagine the millions of pieces of tile required to create the artwork on the dome?

The higher we climbed up the dome, the steeper it got and the harder it was to walk upright.

St. Peter's Square as seen from the dome.

A view of Rome from the top of the dome.

The last photo I ever took in Italy, St. Peter's Basilica at night.

The next day can be found here.