Rome Part II

Still in Rome. Day 3 was the Vatican City. We got up early and caught the subway over to the Vatican Museum. Because of the holiday, the line was much larger than I anticipated. It's apparently always busier the day after a holiday since the museum was closed. Anyway, we ended up waiting for about 45 minutes - not too bad - and were slightly entertained by the street vendors hiding from the police. They would snake through the line offering their items and then duck behind everyone when a cop came by - eventually we saw about 10 of them moving very quickly away from the line looking over their shoulders as they picked up speed.
On to the museums!

The first set of rooms was the ancient civilization rooms. Here's a picture of some of the sarcophagi from Ancient Egypt.

After wandering through Egypt and Mesopotamia, we ended up in the hall of statues - bunches of Roman rulers and nobility. This is a famous statue of Julius Cesar. Or maybe Augustus.
Jessica catching some rays in the courtyard.

This is a very old torso from ancient greek/roman times. Supposedly this torso had great influence on Michelangelo.

Making our way through the map room. This hallway leads to the tapestry room - never knew you could make a carpet look like a painting - then to the Raphael rooms.

And speaking of the Raphael rooms -here's one of his most well known works. The School of Athens. He painted some of his contemporaries into this as Greek Philosophers. Plato is the bald guy in the middle, and he is actually a portrait of Leonardo.

After the Raphael rooms was the Sistine Chapel (no pictures!). A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Michelangelo spent 4 years on his back doing the ceiling and then came back and painted one of the walls (the Last Judgment) in his later years. We exited the Sistine Chapel through a special door (Rick Steves' tip) and into St. Peter's Basilica. This place is Huge! Yes I just capitalized it. This is a picture of Michelangelo's Pieta'. He completed it in his early 20s and although you can't see it in this picture, he actually signed his name on a strap crossing Mary's chest because people didn't believe someone so young could create such a masterpiece.

The inside of St. Peters. I didn't get great shots because they were setting up for the Pope's mass the next day and there were probably 60,000 chairs inside the basilica. Another interesting fact about St. Peter's - all the other large churches could fit inside. There are markings on the floor showing where they would fit. Also there are no paintings in the church - all the artwork is mosaic.

Enjoying the beautiful weather in St. Peter's Square.

This is a little out of order - we ate dinner in Trastevere - a typical Roman neighborhood across the river from the Pantheon. This door was in that area while we were exploring.

Looking down back at St. Peter's. Nothing can be built that exceeds its height in Rome.

While walking along we stumbled across this bookstore in the street. I looked down and saw this cookbook - one we purchased from Costco a few years ago. How's that for authentic? We also saw that the pasta you can purchase at Costco is one of the more expensive brands in Italy. Costco, you have impressed me once again.

Another shot of the church. It's huge.

Me. Big Church.

This was our third day in Rome - we had to fly out of here, so we had one more day after we headed south to experience Naples and the Amalfi Coast. More to come....