We started off early today, taking the bus to spend the morning visiting the Vatican City. Did you know, even though it’s in Rome, it’s really its own country, officially known as a “city state”.
We toured through the gardens of the Vatican, then onto St.Peter’s Square. It’s a massive space that was built starting in about 1650 so that there was a public space for lots and lots of people to hear the Pope speak. In the middle of the square there’s a great big obelisk, that was originally from Egypt representing humanity reaching out to Christ.
After that we headed down into to tomb grotto (we think it was kind of creepy) and saw all the Pope tombs. After that we walked through the (very crowded) Vatican halls and saw at all sorts of statues, wall hangings and even some very detailed tile mosaics that are centuries old. It is amazing how well the artistic details are still there after so many years.
We continued on, heading into the Sistine Chapel, we had to be real quiet as we walked through because it’s a place of worship. We were told that we are specially honoured today because a priest came out and said a prayer, blessing all of us while we were there. The chapel has paintings on all the walls and on the ceiling is the very famous Michelangelo paintings showing the stories from Genesis in the bible. It’s really something to see, the colours are so vibrant and it almost looks like sculpture on the ceiling and not just painting (but we weren’t permitted to take pictures).
Then, before we left Vatican City with walked through St. Peter’s Basilica. We were told it’s the most holiest of sites of Christianity and Catholic Tradition. The large domed roof is the highest point all over the city and Rome. The inside had great domed ceilings, with nooks hold statues and wall frescos. It also holds St. Peter’s tomb it a place of honour.
Well Behaved Kids Travel 