Did you know the Vatican is it’s own city? It’s also the smallest independent state in the world by both area and population. I want my own city/state.
The outside of the Vatican was exactly how I pictured it from what I’ve seen in pictures and movies. Beautiful and enormous.
People were really great about asking us if we wanted our picture taken together. We also offered to take other people’s pictures as well. We did the whole, I’ll take yours if you take mine thing.
These chairs were still out from the day before. On Wednesdays, the general public can get tickets and listen to an address given by the Pope. I wish I would have known about this before and tried to get tickets. Although we’re not catholic, it’s not everyday you get to see the Pope in person.
The Holy Doors.
This is one of the most famous statues inside the Vatican. It’s of Mary holding Jesus after he was crucified. J and I had the audio tour and listening to the story around this statue was really touching and emotional. Even though He was Jesus, at it’s most simple form it’s a mother holding her dying child in her arms. I can’t imagine the pain she went through.
The Papal altar.
Engravings of the past Popes to the current one.
After exploring the Vatican we walked outside of the tourist areas to this little restaurant which was one of the best restaurant experiences of the trip.
Lasagna for me, simple but delicious spaghetti for J.
After lunch we walked back towards the Vatican to go the Vatican Museum which is most famous for the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museum is about a 15-20 minute walk from the actual center of the Vatican and you walk along the old Vatican walls. If you look closely you can see thin rectangular slots at the top of the wall. This is where guards would rest their guns.
The grounds of the museum. You can see the Vatican dome peeking through.
Many of male statues had fig leafs covering their male parts. More conservative Popes demanded that the statues be covered and although some of the fig leaves were removed to restore the statues to their original state, we saw many of them still covered.
A view of Rome.
A sneak peek at the Vatican gardens. You can get separate tickets to tour the gardens although we chose not to.
The most famous part of the Vatican museum is the Sistine Chapel. Since the Chapel is still considered a holy place talking and taking photos were prohibited although people were doing both. This is one of the few photos J was able to secretly snap. The Chapel has guards to monitor the noise level and every few minutes one of the guards “shhhsss” the whole place. How would you like that job?
After a long day at the Vatican we headed back to our hotel and just grabbed dinner at the cafe by our hotel. We started with a caprese salad and then J had the baked lasagna and I had the fettuccini with mushrooms. J definitely had the winner this meal.
For dessert we got the tiramisu and creme brule and then shared 🙂
Venice coming up next!
In case you missed it:
