Saturday, February 25, 2006

Vatican City, Rome


The Vatican, a country within a country, is the centre of power for the Catholic religion. The Vatican has its own post office, stamps and radio broadcasting. We had to take a photo of the colourful uniforms of the Swiss guards, who we read about in Dan Brown’s Angles & Demons! Inside the Basilica we went first to see the ‘Pieta’, the famous statue of Mary & Jesus by Michelangelo. He made this when he was only 25!!

We climbed to the top of the St. Peter’s Basilica. More than 300 narrow, steep and winding steps led us to the top, where we had a view of the colonnade of Piazza San Pietro, designed by Bernini. On our way down we bought some postcards & used the Vatican stamps to post our letters.

By the time we got down, Lily was running a fever from the exertion! However we could not miss out going to the Vatican Museums because we simply could not leave without seeing the Sistine Chapel or Raphaels’ Rooms. I doubt Lily enjoyed anything much, but we did stop to look at the amazing ceilings. We could not photograph the Sistine chapel, but this ceiling will suffice. The amount of art kept in these museums is mind boggling!

2 comments:

Gwyn Calvetti said...

Oh, I do hope to get to Italy someday. Your gorgeous layout just makes me want to even more.

Michelle W. said...

oh I hope I can go there someday (if I wasn't afraid of flying that is). Being Catholic it's a special meaning for me to go there. Beautiful layout!

Michelle