Vatican City

Our first day in Rome we spent exploring the Colosseum and Forum. We’d be making our way to Vatican City to explore the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

Vatican City State is considered its own country and ruled by the Pope. It is the smallest state in the world in size and population.

Vatican Museum

It was a quick train ride from our hotel to Vatican City. Our first stop of the day would be the Vatican Museum. This is beautifully built museum and houses some of the most famous sculptures and art in the world. We spent a good deal of time browsing the many wings of the museum and marvelling at the collection of art collected over the years.

The art itself isn’t just “pieces of collected art” like paintings, sculptures and what not. The building itself is a work of art with art built into its very walls. We spent the petter part of the morning and early afternoon here. If you can appreciate the art and the history of such an amazing place, I would budget a full day just in the museum alone.

Sistine Chapel

One significant part of the Museum is the Sistine Chapel. Upon entering, you then realize just how beautiful the chapel itself is. Just about every inch of the interior is covered in art and you soon realize the amount of work and effort that must have gone into creating such a masterpiece. There are rules in place that prohibit photography of the interior and I was fully expecting to abide by them. However as I was admiring the artistry, I noticed a few other tourists taking photos and decided to snap a few “concealed” shots with my iPhone. They didn’t turn out as nice as I would have liked, but I was weary of the rules and didn’t want to blatantly pull out the big camera to take photos!

Vatican Post Office

Within the Vatican Museum is also a Vatican Post Office. Being its own country, it has its own postal service and one of the things I had read about prior to visiting was sending something through the postal system to get a Vatican Stamp. I was able to send a postcard to myself and lo and behold a Vatican stamp!

Saint Peter’s Square

Our next stop was Saint Peter’s Basilica. In front of the basilica was Saint Peter’s Square. This was a massive courtyard flanked by large Romanesque structures. I’ve only seen this square in movies (disaster movies come to mind right now when all is lost and people gather in the square to pray) but standing in the square and seeing how grand it really is, is something to behold. Thankfully for us it had been raining on and off that day and the “tourist density” wasn’t as high as it normally would be. This meant a shorter line to get into the basilica and less people crowding the square. (Even so, there were still a great deal of tourists!)

St. Peter’s Basilica

Security around the area was pretty tight and it was neat to see the famed “Swiss Guards” posted around the Vatican. There are also strict dress code rules, this is done as a sign of respect and reverence for the religious site. Again we were thankful it was raining because it cooled the temperature and made wearing long sleeved clothes in an Italian summer that much more bearable.

Once I got through the main doors of St. Peter’s basilica I was blown away. Its really hard to describe how large, grand and magnificent this building is. The size of it is huge! I’ve been to many cathedrals in my travels and nothing compares to this. Next the amount of art and grandeur is equally as amazing. There is gold, sculptures of key religious figures and ornate areas of worship everywhere! I’m not sure how to really put into words what this place looks like, other than to say that if you haven’t visited you need to. Its a humbling experience to come into a place that so much human effort is put into a place of worship.

Visiting the Vatican is an amazingly worthwhile thing to do if you ever find yourself in Rome. We spent a full day here and could easily have spent more if our schedule allowed. There’s just so much to take in. From the fact that you are stepping into another country, to how grand, beautiful and amazing each place is. There is certainly a lot to see and experience!

Sadly we would be leaving Rome tomorrow. We will be heading out onto the open seas aboard a Mediterranean cruise!