And Now, A Word from Our Pope

Our hotel was very close to the Vatican.  One neat thing about staying so close to the Vatican - every day, you can pass back and forth multiple times from one country to another!  Yes, the Vatican is the smallest country I've been to - the smallest country in the world!

This was the view from our hotel:

Sunset over St. Peter's Square.

In a giant oval around the square, statues of the saints and of Jesus himself look down on the crowds.

The entrance of St. Peter's Basilica.

On the morning of Epiphany, thousands of people crowd into St. Peter's Square. 

Exiting the church after Mass.

Since it was also a Sunday, the Pope appeared to give his Angelus to the thousands gathered in St. Peter's square.

In light of the recent news - this event is even more special now.

The Pope addressed the crowd, speaking at least 6 languages.

To give you an idea of where the Pope was - here you can see the window (top, second from the right) with the red banner hanging from it.  Pretty far away (so I was happy my camera can ZOOM!)

Giving his final blessing.

The Vatican (at least on this side) is surrounded by a huge fortification.

The next stop was the Vatican Museum, a huge collection of art assembled over the centuries.

One of the Egyptian rooms, set up to look like an ancient temple.

A rare (in least in my experience) statue.

Also an Egyptian statue, a little more realistic.

An ancient envelope, made of clay.  Pretty neat!

In the random statue room - the moral of this room - the Vatican has a lot of random statues.

This arch is so neat!  Escher would have loved it!  It actually is three dimensional - almost like a mobius arch.

Missing a bow.

Bram, with the random statue room behind him.

I need this statue in my office - the muse of astronomy.

There is even some (weird) modern art on the grounds of the Vatican.  A point if you can tell me what the heck it is.

Exploring some more, we come across this Greek vase where a man tries to jam a boar into a pot that already contains another man.

A tapestry of the ascension.

The famous map room - decked out with a beautiful ceiling.

The map room had maps from all around Italy.  Another point if you can guess what this is a map of!  And as always, you can only make a guess at one of the questions at a time.

And a map of Sicily!

The very famous staircase in the Vatican museum - art in its own right.

Sunset over the Vatican.

Then we head onwards to visit the Sistine chapel.  It is amazing.  Literally amazing.  You can really see the talent of Michelangelo.  Unfortunately, we could not take pictures there, but if you ever have a chance to go to Rome, please go there and stand in wonder at the paintings.

Next up was St. Peter's Basilica.

Welcome!

An arch on the way to the Basilica.

Inside, one of the most famous statues of all time - Michelangelo's Pieta.

But that wasn't the only amazing statue.  St. Peter's is filled with amazing art.  Note the woman in this picture for scale.

The incredible art behind the altar.  These marble statues are maybe twice as big as lifesize.  Amazing.

Looking across the huge expanse of St. Peter's.  The large monument on the left is the monument to St. Peter - and St. Peter is buried underneath.

Another famous statue - St. Peter - his foot rubbed smooth by thousands of pilgrims touching it.

St. Peter's, to the tune of a visiting American choir.

With that, our trip to Rome draws to a close.  I know it's late, but I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy Epiphany!