Italy Spring Break III: Matt- "So when do we meet the Pope?"

Our Monday started out with a brief trip to Piazza Popolo.  We wandered the Plaza and then into a few churches.  The piazza is lined by four.

 Matt was very happy I let him touch a statue because I made him avoid touching them since that's how they get worn down!

 I lit a candle in one of the churches :-)

From there we went to meet our tour group.  So we had a 3.5 hour tour planned.  We thought this tour was supposed to cover the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's.  Unluckily for us we got a guide who is also an Art History professor.  Our tour was 4 hours in the Vatican Museums and then 20 minutes in the Sistine Chapel.  My goodness did we learn about art.

 This statue was very cool to see especially since my dad had mentioned it before from his trip.  Here is the story about it:
"When the statue was discovered, Laocoön's right arm was missing, along with part of the hand of one child and the right arm of the other. Artists and connoisseurs debated how the missing parts should be interpreted. Michelangelo suggested that the missing right arms were originally bent back over the shoulder. Others, however, believed it was more appropriate to show the right arms extended outwards in a heroic gesture."  The original arm was later discovered at the site and it was bent over the back just as Michelangelo suggested.  Man that guy was smart.

 This was the tomb of Constantine's Mother made of a red marble that no longer exists.  It has all been excavated and due to this is is the most expensive type of marble in the world.  It is called Porphyry marble and is worth 20,000 euros per cubic inch which comes out to about 30,000 dollars per cubic inch of this stuff.  The Vatican also has Emperor Nero's bathtub which was made of the same material.  I'm pilfering this photo from Tuna as he took a picture of the bathtub and I forgot to...

This was the beautiful map room which was lined with various maps of Italy on the walls.  This room was also where we noted that we could not remember a time when our guide was not talking to us.  We were getting a little tired of the art.  Matt kept me entertained with questions such as "So when is the 'Meet the Pope' part of our tour?"

Luckily a break came a little later as we entered the wonderful Sistine Chapel!  Once again I took illegal photos because I wanted memories, and because others were getting away with it so why couldn't I just pretend to be an ignorant tourist too!

 They aren't the best photo's ever but I was trying to be STEALTHY!  In the middle of the ceiling is the famous Creation of Adam panel.

This was The Last Judgment which Michelangelo came back and painted when he was in his 70's.  Apparently he painted one of the Archbishops as a demon of hell to get back at the bishop for speaking out against the "indecency" of his work.

From the chapel our tour ended and Matt and I explored St. Peter's Basilica.  Now the dome was already closed when we were finished with our tour so we went back the next day as well.  I'm just going to show a mix of both day's photos since the outdoor photos were better on Tuesday.

 The Basilica was gorgeous on the very sunny Tuesday and also very popular!

 This Basilica was astounding.  I have never seen a church so lavish before.  There was colored marble everywhere, statues, giant Pope Memorials, and beautiful art covering every inch.

The famous Pietà by Michelangelo

 One of the Pope memorials.  It is really a drastic difference between the other popes and Pope John Paul II.  His memorial was very humble just as he was.

The Cupola was AMAZING.  I loved the mosaics in the inside of the dome and the view from the top was splendid.

Getting up to the top was interesting because at certain times the walls were slanted in.  We WERE walking up a dome using relatively straight lines so this was bound to happen.

I love this panorama because you can see the beautiful square and the Pantheon and the Vittoriano in the distance to the right.  I love how close it all is in Rome!

 The awesome travelers!

 I love St. Peter's Square.  I just want to blow up this photo and look at it all the time.  I think it is amazing and unique with it's "keyhole" shape.  My obsession with it meant that I never wanted to come down from the dome though...

The Very Top!

Statues of the Saints that line the front of the basilica.

Apparently this structure, which covers the entrance to St. Peter's tomb is over 9 stories tall.  It looks much shorter than 9 stories!  I think that that is only because it is dwarfed by the ceiling of the basilica as the structured lies underneath the dome.

The Entrance to St. Peter's

 

THE SWISS GUARDS!!! I loved their outfits and I think they can pull them off simply because they're supposed to be the best trained military men in the world.  If anyone makes fun of those clothes they just kick their ass and then go back to guarding Vatican City.

From St. Peter's we visited Castle San Angelo where Matt had ALSO visited in his video game.  This meant he was wondering where he could climb up again...

 It is surprisingly simple inside with only a few rooms although I get the feeling that much of the castle is not open to visitors.

 We then took a few photos near the Bridge of Angels before we headed off to the train station to start our trip to Florence!