St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican - August 31, 2010

Tuesday August 31, 2010

Senne's Summary: Today we checked out St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican. We did not see the Pope.

This morning Mom and Gary went on the search for yummy cappuccinos while Steve and I slept in. They were gone awhile and had two each. (A little wired, anyone???)

Today was our day to visit St. Peter’s Basilica and The Vatican Museum. We decided to go to St. Peter’s first (mostly because it’s the line we found first . There were signs about what you can’t do… the regular… no bare shoulders, no shorts, be quiet and the ever popular no Swiss Army Knives sign. No mention of no guns or daggers or swords… but a definite picture with a red line through it for the Swiss Army Knife (Carey you would have never made it through the scanner 😉)

As we were dressed appropriately and had no weapons they let us in pretty quickly. The line wasn’t that long and moved quite fast.

It is so massive it is impossible to get a picture that shows you the whole thing. Here's a glimpse!

The inside was quite beautiful, just as all the Basilica’s have been so far. The weird thing about this one was that they had a few of the dead Popes’ remains on display. They were in lighted glass cases so you could actually see the body. It was a bit like a car accident… horrifying, but really hard to stop looking at!

I thought the Basilica was quite beautiful, but still prefer Siena’s. I LOVED the dome in Siena… it looked like a starry sky.

Photos really don't show the scope of the size and beauty here...
you need to come see it with your own eyes!

After this long adventure (made longer by Steve attempting to get the perfect picture 😉), we decided to get some lunch. We went just outside the Vatican walls to a non-descript little restaurant that had some tables out on the sidewalk (well really there aren’t any sidewalks… it was more like the road…). The restaurant wasn’t much to look at, but I had hands down the best pasta I have ever had in my whole entire life. It was just spaghetti with tomatoes and parmesan cheese… but WOW! I would have eaten that spaghetti with nothing on it… it was that good!

Best pasta in the world!

After lunch we headed back to the Vatican to check out the Vatican museum. Again, we somehow managed to avoid a long line up and went straight in.

 There was a lot of stuff in this museum. Statues, archaeological things, Egyptian things, and a lot of sarcophagus’. I didn’t expect that… I thought it would mostly be Church stuff. My favourite part was the apartments. These are rooms that either Raphael or his follower’s painted that the Popes used as Apartments during Renaissance times. These rooms were absolutely beautiful. The last place you see on your visit is the Sistine Chapel. I’m not sure if I’d just had enough, but it didn’t wow me the way that I expected it to. (Mom and Steve were not really wowed either). I much preferred the apartments to the Sistine Chapel.

Imagine the time it took just to craft the ceiling!

Side note: For some reason it amuses us to recreate warning signs...

After the museum we headed home for Siesta time and then a few snacks before our evening walk.

Our evening walk took us over to the Campo de Fiori area, which I know is another famous area. We haven’t seen it during the day when it supposedly has a lovely flower market, but I can safely say at night it leaves a little to be desired. I was not alone in my thinking that it seemed a little bit sketchy.

We walked back to the area of our apartment (which is between the Castelo Saint Angelo and the Piazza Navona… and is really quite beautiful) and found a little restaurant to share a bottle of wine and have a light dinner.

Suddenly the day is over (time flies when you’re drinking wine!) and we head home to bed.

One final question for you dear reader... we found this in the apartment. Is it a flower arrangement or a hat?