Roma Part 1: The Vatican.

So on Sunday, Mario, Tiffany, Pam, Jeremy, Austin, Ben and I made a day trip to Rome. Our morning started, oh, about 4.5 hours after our Saturday evening concert...no joke. We got up around 4 AM in catch a 5:50 train from Spoleto to Rome. On the last Sunday of the month, the Vatican Museum is FREE! We really wanted to get to the Vatican City as early as we could so we could get in line before the Vatican Museum opened at 9. The line was pretty terrifying when we arrived at 8:30ish, but it moved fairly quickly and we made it inside the museum around 10:30.

I had no idea how GINORMOUS the Vatican Museum is...literally miles and miles of hallways covered from the floor to the ceiling with art. My favorite room was the Map Room....and the Sistine Chapel:

The Map Room.

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The ceiling/wall of the Last Judgement of the Sistine Chapel... with the help of my panoramic software.

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We had packed food for the day, so we decided to take a lunch break in St. Peter's Square... no biggie.

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Then we entered St. Peter's Basilica. I remember Cecilia telling me how overwhelmed she felt when she first walked through the doors...I can't begin to describe how I felt when I first walked in. Walking through the Basilica was a very emotional experience. To give you an idea of the sheer size of it, the Duomo in Florence and St. Mark's in London could both fit inside of it. The columns inside St. Peter's are 7 stories, and the gold band on top of them is 7 feet tall.

The main altar. Beneath the altar, about 20 feet is the remains of St. Peter the Apostle. As in THE Peter. As in the first pope. Wow. Totally mind blowing. We went to the crypts below the church and saw every pope's tomb. Every single pope. Unreal.

Remember how I mentioned that the Duomo in Florence was the most amazing thing I've ever seen? Yeah, doesn't hold a candle to St. Peter's. I have to go back. I have to go back. Um, I have to go back.

After the Vatican we went to see the ruins of Rome, which I will update with pictures when I have more time!