Come let me show you what is ... THE VATICAN

That's right, the Vatican! We started our day on another interesting bus ride...I'm amazed at how the most mundane tasks in Italy are so interesting...I really thought we were going to take out the entire lane of cars with a single turn!
So with our trusty Antonella leading the way we headed into the massive...”City Center”...of the Vatican.
Starting off with the Museum...so many sculptures..., Naked Boys, and Pretty Boys! Quite the scandal...Antonella told us about when the Pope decided that the nakedness was not appropriate at church...so he had all the "bits" taken off of the statues...so Antonella asked once..."is there a room with all the bits!" Ha!
From the Museum you could see the dome of St. Peter's, really one of the most incredible feat in architecture...I'm so amazed at how, with such limited resources they made such amazing masterpieces...the dome is so underutilized in our contemporary style world. It creates such great space and movement and such a grandeur!
We traveled though the Museum seeing the incredible tapestries with gold and silver thread...amazing! They have been masterly preserved by 40 nuns who have devoted their lives to keeping them for many generations to come! The floors were so incredible, I never knew how many colors marble came in...vibrant, fabulous colors.
Next, we headed to Sistine Chapel...a moment I've been waiting for since the moment I studied them in my history books. I floored...the pictures do not do this masterpiece justice. Michelangelo really did leave his mark… like no one else in history. The colors were magnificent and ...oh my goodness astonishing! Seeing the hand of God...a piece that I had spent hours staring at, sketching it in High School was such an...awe man moment! I couldn't even imagine how, for hours upon hours, Michelangelo laid on his back working. I didn't want to leave, I only had to because my neck was cramping...question...why the ceiling! Don't they know it's easier to see on the walls!
Moving on, we were off to St. Peter's ...This was one of my highlights of Rome! The biggest cathedral, the most unbelievable sculptures...just the scale alone was...grand! Being the genius artist they are they created scale by making the statues at the bottom smaller than the massive ones on the top, the letters at the top were 6 feet tall...6 feet!
One of my favorite sculptures of Mother Mary with the crucified Christ over her lap. This was one of the earliest sculptures by Michelangelo that he marked...just to stick it to the unbelievers. I really felt the depth of the moment he captured with this rough block of stone.
After a quick blessing from St. Peter ...and headed up to the dome. So the genius that is Bernini...he was asked to make a grand entrance for the Pope and because of the lack of space he manipulated the stairs to have more grand by perception. So up we went, up and up and up...500...something stairs...around and around! Some of the time I felt like I was in a crazy Willy Wonka moment! But...finally we reached the end and oh, my the view! I could see all the way to Paris from there! Yeah, not really, but close! Just seeing the bird’s eye view of the Vatican and the grand span of Rome…I realized I have a lot more of Rome to see!
We had a little breather outside in the court yard then headed out to find the Pantheon…not a problem I thought, wrong-o! So we got a tiny bit lost…what a great place to get lost! After a few walks in an iffy area and a couple switches of the metro we were shocked to find the Pantheon stuck smack in the middle of Italian city area…Freaking Sweet! I have dreamed of seeing that dome…the obelisk …at that time…about 5…it was shining brilliantly on the wall! We sat down on the floor, exhausted… and took it all in!
A trip to the corner gelato shop…strawberry and coconut…yammers! And back to the Villa Pamphili for a swim…sadly we didn’t get to use the hot blue shower caps that are usually required…shame! Then, off to dinner in Rome. We had a really great waiter…served we some fab Carpanora (pretty darn dang tasty) and…ah what a sweetie…gave us some free shots…well obviously we didn’t partake, but it was fun watching our friend Ashley take a swig! We hailed a quick cab…yeah I hailed a cab…look at me being all city savvy and headed to bed! What an eye full of a day!