A Country Unto Itself

Day 10

Our day started early with another country altogether but only a few blocks walk from our hostel: The Vatican.  You enter the courtyard and imagine the history that has been seen from this spot.  The masses that congregate whenever a conclave, or a choosing of a new Pope, is held and you wonder at its greatness.  It brings wonder of thought that is no doubt.

First we went to the St. Peter's Basilica and you don't have to pay, but you do have to follow a dress code.  You can't have your shoulders uncovered or have your shorts or skirts too short.  We literally saw the guards turn people away from the church for not being dressed appropriately.  Way to go to hold up values you believe in!

 Is that slime on the fountain or is it supposed to be that color? Uhhhh?

Once inside you cannot believe what you see.  Every inch is covered in art of the most skilled hands of time and you cannot believe my joy at all the skill.  You never saw a more overdone building, but as you look inside you cannot wonder at who they worship here (and there were worship services going on while we were there).

Holy Water

I love the cherubs.

 If that doesn't look reverent than what is?

I loved all the light that came in through windows, that was pretty much the only light source besides the many candles.

I told you every niche was covered.

You rub or kiss St. Peter's foot to ask him to be kind at the heavenly gates when you arrive.

It has been done so much that the bronze foot is literally worn thin and has no toes still visible.

The gift shop was an important stop as it was the one place I had promised to get a gift for someone and I found a gift for myself in the form of a nativity scene.  It is one of the most beautiful I have seen and small.  The thing that really surprised me was that the prices were not overly high, pretty much fair.  But the best was having a cute little nun help me pick out the perfect wedding gift for Julie and Sam in the form of a cross.  She explained all the fantastic symbolism that I was proud to repeat to Jules when I got home.

Next we headed up to the cupola, or the very tippy top of the dome.  Believe it or not we walked.  It was a cheaper but much more exhausting, being 544 steps (we counted them as we went) to the top, but we decided that if Michelangelo could do it in his 70s than we could do it in our 23rd year.  It took some great determination but was well worth the view.

The inside of the dome is high enough huh?

As you get up to the top the walls start curving in and you have to lean in the narrow walk-way.

 This is where the elevator takes you.

I asked her later and she said she was looking at how much farther we had to go as we had only gone about half-way I think.

The very top stairs, no rail, just the rope to stop you from falling.

The gardens

The wall separating one city from another, or is it one country from another?

I guess both technically.

 The Pope's house. 

The courtyard.

 Last before we went home, but certainly not least was the Vatican Museum.  The whole thing is several miles of walking and absolutely exhausting not to mention far more crowded than anywhere should be, and to pass the lines, since by this time it was later in the day, we joined a tour group, the only one of our trip really.  Now we did learn a few things that were very interesting and we would not have gathered on our own, but honestly it was not worth it really.  I would say buy your tickets online maybe but the tour group makes you move too quickly and you do not get to pick what you see in such a maze of museum.  Overall it was okay and a really neat experience anyway.  And at the end we left our tour and snuck back into the museum to see a few more things that we missed...we wanted our moneys worth.

Our tour guide.

Just follow the blue flower :)

A few of the things that we saw...

Isn't the puppy's face just cute?  Certainly man's best friend.

You could get a sore neck trying to see everything on the ceiling of worth.

The Vatican symbol/seal.

How do you like his face?

Maybe he just doesn't like holding up a heavy red marble box.

The exiting spiral staircase.

Of course my absolutely favorite part was the Sistine Chapel, but of course that is the one area you can't take pictures of, but I honestly could have almost lived there.  It was one of the most amazing and awe-inspiring things of my life.  You look up at the ceiling, seeing the inspiration, skill, and vision of one who knew how to use his hands to work a wonder.  There is no question why we still speak of the skill of Michelangelo.

These are the images I could find...overall view is kind of hard to gain the true appreciation.

The Garden of Eden

The Last Judgement

Part of The Creation of Adam

Hands speak volumes of the soul

We finally returned to the hostel for our break and enjoyed it.  It was now that we found our new friend.  To tell the story I have to go back to the night before.  When I got out of the shower Aubrey told me to look at the backpack on the bed next to hers; on the bed I saw a BYU study abroad bag that you see all over campus and can recognize a mile away.  As luck would have it our neighbor in the room was Kendal, a BYU graduate of a year who had been teaching English in Spain and was now touring around for a while.  Since we shared a history we were instant friends and decided to join forces the next day.  So we met up after nap time and headed out together for fun.

Aren't we just the cutest ladies!

We saw another street fair

More of our favorite things: free fountains...

Irony, but the best explanation of modern day Rome.

Picturesque

 Gelato!

Best dessert ever! 

 Our seats while we ate because there weren't enough tables for all the customers.  By the way, Italians do not understand lines; you just push and shove in a mob until you get to the front of the mass and get the attention of the sales person and yell out your order.  Different, but it works.

Whoops, I dropped the cream off of mine (do I like sweets or what?).

The famous gelato place we visited--totally worth it!

We went back to the Trevi Fountain to see if it was as busy as during the day, because Kendal hadn't visited it yet, and I wanted to see it lit up.  Not quite a mosh pit in evening but it is still very busy.

Make a Wish...

We lost Aubrey in the crowd, so I stood up on a fence post to find her; I got some dirty looks from tourists, but we did find her.

It is fabulous, is it not.

Okay just plain funny that the cops use little smart cars (where do you put the bad guys you arrest), but honestly you don't see any big cars anywhere in Europe and scooters are extremely common.  It was interesting but yeah I would not want to drive on those streets with all the crazy people.

We went our separate ways the next day but we made a great friend and had a wonderful time exploring a city of dreams.  In fact on the way home we went by this line of white tents that made up a very long street market along the Tiber River and I found something I have wanted for years: 

Afghan pants (like the ones Disney's Aladdin wears)! ;P