Vatican City

Wednesday, March 26th

The Vatican

It was interesting to see the Pope and i had to laugh out loud because a lot of my classmates said that they wanted to be religious now that they were in the Vatican and saw the pope!

St. Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro)

Designed by Bernini. It includes 284 travertine columns, 88 pilasters, and 140 statues of saints as well as two twin 17^th century fountains and a red granite obelisk.

Vatican Museum

There are 7km of rooms and galleries made up of eight museums, five galleries, the Apostolic Library, the Borgia Apartments, the Raphael Stanze (or rooms) and the Sistine Chapel.

Stanze di Raffaello (Rapheal Rooms)

In 1508 Pope Julius II (1503-13) commissioned Raphael to decorate the rooms of his new apartments. The result was the four Raphael Rooms. In the central Stanza della Segnatura are the two masterly frescoes, Dispute over the Holy Sacrament and the famous School of Athens. Raphael worked on them from age 26 until his death in 1520. His pupils completed what is considered Raphael’s greatest achievement.

Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel was built by Sixtus IV (1473-84) as the private chapel of the popes. Its walls were painted by elite artists of the day, including Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Perugino. Michelangelo’s masterpiece covers the entire ceiling.

St. Peter’s Basilica

It is the largest of all Roman Catholic churches. As you go in, notice the keys of St. Peter inlaid the doorway paving. Just to the right of the entrance you will find the basilica’s most treasured work of art, Michelangelo’s La Pieta, the exquisite sculpture of Mary with the dead Jesus on her lap. Beneath the dome you will see Bernini’s great baldacchino (canopy) cast out of bronze beams taken from the Pantheon’s porch. It was built right over St. Peter’s tomb and reserved exclusively for the pope’s Mass.

We saw the POPE!!!!!! we had no idea that we were going to either. Apparently he comes out to the people every week on Wed at 10:30am. And thats when we were there. It was interesting to see the Pope and i had to laugh out loud because a lot of my classmates said that they wanted to be religious now that they were in the Vatican and saw the pope! haha

We lost Katie in the smallest country in the world!!!!! We shopped and bought presents for people and had yummy pizza and then stopped for canoli’s on the way to the metro. We went to dinner at a quaint restaurant really close to our hotel with Ryan, Laura, Merry, Mandy, Liz and Katie. Then we went to bed…we were exhausted and looked forward to our continued adventure to Pisa and Florence the next day.