Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel....

We'd planned and reserved a 3 - 3 1/2 hour tour of the Vatican which took place on Monday....our guide was very knowledgeable and we saw so so so many beautiful paintings, sculptures, statues, monuments....the crowning jewel though was the Sistine Chapel

Sipping on cappuccino as we wait for our tour guide...

Typicl size of a car in Rome

Heading up to start our tour in the Vatican Museum

The staircase up to the museums, designed in 1932 by Giuseppe Momo is in the form of a double helix, consisting of two spirals, one to walk up and one to walk down.

Looking down on the Papal Gardens....

The 136.5 m (448 feet) high dome, designed by Michelangelo, was not completed in his lifetime.  St. Peter was buried in AD 64 in a necropolis near the site of his crucifixion in the Circus of Nero.  In AD 324 Constantine constructed a basilica over the tomb.  The old church was rebuilt i the 15th century and throughout the 16th and 17th centuries various architects developed the existing structure.  The new church was inaugurated in 1626.

A staircase of 537 steps leads to the summit of the dome....

I would have loved to have done this for the view, the line was just way too long!

The start of the Papal Mobile Museum.

This was the one Pope John Paul? was shot in...(see pic above)

Inching our way closer to the Sistine Chapel

Pio-Clementine Museum contains the finest of the Vatican's  classical statues like the Apollo Belvedere, a Roman cop in marble of a 4th century BC Greek bronze.

This marle group of the Laocoon (AD 1) is one of many prestigious works of art in the Vatican.

The 136.5 m (448 feet) high dome, designed by Michelangelo, was not completed in his lifetime.  St. Peter was buried in AD 64 in a necropolis near the site of his crucifixion in the Circus of Nero.  In AD 324 Constantine constructed a basilica over the tomb.  The old church was rebuilt i the 15th century and throughout the 16th and 17th centuries various architects developed the existing structure.  The new church was inaugurated in 1626.

The Gallery of Tapestries.

This was the Borgia Apartment....he was a very bad pope; Pinturicchio and his assistants frescoed these rooms for Alexander VI in 1492-95.

Looking down into Vatican City which has its own fire department etc.

Sistine Chapel:  The Ceiling....Michelangelo frescoed the ceiling for Pope Julius II between 1508 and 1512, working on specially designed scaffolding.  The main panels, which chart the Creation of the World and Fall of Man, are surrounded by subjects from the Old and New Testaments.  In the 1980s the ceiling was restored revealing colors of an unsuspected vibrancy.  

Heading over to St. Peter's

I believe that these are the Filarete Doors, bronze doors from the old basilica which were decorated by biblical reliefs by Filarete between 1439 and 1445.  And I think they are only opened every 25 years, at which time people who pass through have all their sins absolved.

Bernini's extravagant canopy stands above St. Peter's tomb.  It was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII in 1624.

Michelangelo's Pieta....Protected by glass since an attack in 1972, the Pieta was created in 1499 when Michelangeo was only 25.

I think a Pope lies here.

The foot of St. Peter by Arnolfo di Cambio, 13th century, has worn thin fro the touch of pilgrims such as Roma over the centuries.

Dad and Roma standing near the Papal Altar which is over the crypt where St. Peter is reputedly buried.

The Dome.

We went to a place where all the popes lay mummified.

The Swiss Guard.

I wouldn't smile either if I had to hold that up for countless hours...

Off to lunch!