Vatican City

We began our day at the Vatican Museum. This is a 4 mile museum that we essentialy breezed through. I am sure without kids, we would have spent a little more time, but our goal was to reach the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel, before a breakdown.

Although, we quickly walked through this museum we had a glimpse at some Greek and Roman statues, ancient maps, tapesteries and the kids favorite--statues of animals!

Justin was careful to cover this man's "privates." However, Keanna did have a few question about the male anatomy.

Justin's favorite part of the museum was this fresco by Rapheal. This was one of Pope Julius II rooms of his apartment. Rapahel included some of the great thinkers including Aristotle, Plato, Diogenes and Michelangelo.

The part that impressed me is that a fresco is actually painted into the plaster as it is drying. I imagine that it's an incredibly difficult medium to work with, requring speed and accuracy

The Sistine Chapel is Pope's personal chapel and where a new Pope is elected. Michelangelo, shows the story of the creation through Renaissance beauty. Michelangelo was 33 years old and it took him 4 years to complete it. We weren't allowed to take pictures, so I took these off the internet.

After lunch... we were off to

St. Peters Square.

The pope will give a blessing from his apartment at noon on Sundays, which can be seen from St. Peter's square. Seeing the Pope, wasn't on our agenda, so we came at a different time and were lucky enough to have short lines!

We finally had a break from the rain, we decided to enjoy our break and let the kids roam St. Peters Square.
It's official I did go on this vacation
Keanna enjoying herself.





St. Peter's Basilica is the largest and most amazing church on earth.

There are marks inside indicating where other large churches of the world would sit in comparison.

This was certainly an amazing church to visit; the professional pictures can't even depict the vastness and beauty of this church. It was clearly a site of great solice and reverance to many of the other visitors. At times I felt like my kids and I were disrupting "moments" for others.

My camera does not have a suitable flash to capture the beauty of this building, but I included a couple of my photo's, just for fun.

Peter was actually crucified here when this area was just Vatican Hill.

Below is a picture of a Bernini's 7 story bronze canopy. Underneath the canopy is the tomb of Peter.

At this point our batteries in our camera died, how sad :(