Rome Day 3 (The Vatican)

Our next two days in Rome we spent at the Vatican. Being Roman Catholic this was a very moving experience for us. St. Peter's Basilica and square are so beautiful that no matter what your religious beliefs it would be difficult not to enjoy and appreciate them. The square outside the church is lined with 120 statues of Bernini's (who designed the square) favorite saints. How bad would you feel if you didn't make the top 120? lol. We arrrived at the Basilica when it first opened on Tuesday morning. It is the largest church in the world and is spectacular. I could go on and on about the interior of the church, but I will limit my blog to my favorite piece of artwork in the Basilica. Michelangelo's Pieta is incredible. It moved me to tears. Unfortunately it is set behind bulletproof glass because it was attacking by a hammer wielding madman. Such a travesty. The highlight of our trip to the Vatican was something called the Scavi tour. Scavi means excavations in italian. St. Peter's Basilica was built on top of an old pagan grave yard. The scavi tour allowed us to go underneath the basilica and see the graves below the church. The best part of the tour is that you get to see the original burial site of St. Peter where the church believed his body to be buried for years. The altar in St. Peter's Basilica was built over this site. However, in the early 1900's, during the excavations under the Basilica it was discovered that his body was not in the grave site. A monument had been ereceted over his gravesite and a niche on the side wall of the monument was discoverd. Above the niche was written "Peter is here". Inside that niche the bones of a 70 year old man was discovered. This is important because that is extremely old for that time and is recorded as the age of Peter when he was killed. The other interesting fact is that the feet were missing from the bones. Peter was crucified upside down and was buried in secret. It is thought the feet would be missing because they would have chopped his feet off in order to remove him from the cross. The church's official stance on the bones are that they are "most likely" St. Peter's. We actually got to see the niche, with the writing of "Peter is here" and the bones that are likely St. Peter. It was amazing.

After we got our fill of the Basilica we headed over to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. The museums are overwhelming. You walk from room to room that are filled completely (ceiling, walls, and floors) with priceless artwork. It is impossible to see and take in it all. After a very long journey thru the museums we finally made it to the Sistine Chapel. It was amazing, but sensory overload. Your neck gets tired from looking up at the ceiling!