Vatican City

The smallest (population of 800 people all members of the clergy) and the richest countriy in the world was thronged with people all over the world. We were early for our 12.00pm tour of the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel. The third largest museum in the world had several galleries displaying Greek and Egyptian art and sculptures. "The Vatican Museums originated as a group of sculptures collected by Pope Julius II (1503-1513) and placed in what today is the Cortile Ottagono within the museum complex. The popes were among the first sovereigns who opened the art collections of their palaces to the public thus promoting knowledge of art history and culture. As seen today, the Vatican Museums are a complex of different pontifical museums and galleries that began under the patronage of the popes Clement XIV (1769-1774) and Pius VI (1775-1799). In fact, the Pio-Clementine Museum was named after these two popes, who set up this first major curatorial section. Later, Pius VII (1800-1823) considerably expanded the collections of Classical Antiquities, to which he added the Chiaromonti Museum and the Braccio Nuovo gallery. He also enriched the Epigraphic Collection, which was conserved in the Lapidary Gallery" (from the museum website). The courtyards were full of ancient statues of humans and Gods. The stories of some of the artists like Michael Angelo and Raphael were inseparable from their works. While it was impossible to see every gallery in the short time we had, we got the flavor and the interesting history from the 2 hour tour. 

The highlights of the Sistine Chapel for us were Michael Angelo's exquisite paintings, one on the ceiling depicting the creation of humanity and the more controversial, "Blue wall", "The Last Judgement" which depicts life after death in an extremely graphic and imaginative way. The later became my personal favorite! 

After a quick bite at the cafeteria, we headed to see some more of the museum and maneuvered through the hordes of people into the most important and the biggest church in the entire Christiandom, the St. Peter's Basilica! Saying St. Peter's is gigantic is like saying, "Einstein is smart!" The church is believed to have been built where Jesus's right hand man, St. Peter was crucified and buried. The original church was present for about a 1000 years until around 1500AD when it started crumbling and the present St. Peter's was built. It has two of Michael Angelo's most important works, one at the start of his career when he was invited from Florence and created the "Pieta", a larger than life statue of Mother Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus. 

His other work consumed the last two decades of his life. The magnificent "Dome" still remained unfinished when he died at the age of 89 and was later completed using his blue prints.

We took the over 320 steps to get to the top of the Dome for a rewarding view of the St. Peter's square, the Vatican city and Rome from the high vantage point. 

 After a short siesta at the hotel, we were charged up to seize Rome by night again! Walking along the Tiber river and through the narrow cobble stone streets

lined with little cages, restaurants, gelatarias, small boutique shops, "H and Ms"

and the other "usual suspect Italian brands", with hundreds of other tourists and locals has a special vibe to it. The vibe only gets enhanced when you approach a piazza with street artists playing music, kids and adults dancing and people just soaking Rome in with every sip of their "vino" at the outdoor restaurants! 

The Trevi fountain was closed for restoration, which we found out after reaching there. It was a delightful walk from the Pantheon with the special Roman summer vibe that u just described.