Catholicism 101

Thursday, March 12th

We had a date with the Pope at 10:00am – he didn’t show, so we went to the Vatican Museum instead. That thing sure is big! They have a large collection of Egyptian artifacts, tons of statues, lots of tapestries, ancient maps and some pretty nice paintings. Some of their nicest works are painted right onto the walls themselves – what’s up with that? As kids we always had to use paper!!!! Needless to say, the works by Raphael and Michelangelo were something to behold. The Sistine Chapel was really neat to get to visit, although the paintings weren’t as vibrant as Jen thought they would be. It took us about 4 hours in total to weave our way through the museum. From there we stopped in the carriage house and got to see old Pope-Mobiles (really cool).

One of Many Marble Statues
Vatican Museum
Vatican City

A Map Room
Vatican Museum
Vatican City

School of Athens
Vatican Museum
Vatican City



The Sistine Chapel
Vatican Museum
Vatican City

After the museum we went to St. Peter’s Basilica. We entered through the grotto, saw John Paul II’s grave and saw the traditional location of St. Peter’s grave. From there we walked up into the Basilica which was absolutely breathtaking.

Saint Peter's Basilica
Vatican City

Saint Peter's Basilica
Vatican City

Saint Peter's Basilica
Vatican City

Saint Peter's Square
Vatican City

The Spanish Steps were next on our list of attractions to visit, they were alright. Really crowded and full of people. We didn’t really didn’t spend much time there. We then headed by foot over to the Trevi Fountain, which ended up being even more crowded then the Spanish Steps. The area around the Trevi fountain was full of little shops and gelato stands. So we helped ourselves to some gelato and people watched. (They had this amazing mixed berry flavor – it was wonderful! You could see the chunks of berries. Jenny had that mixed with the lemon which was just so fresh!)

Spanish Steps
Rome, Italy

Trevi Fountain
Rome, Italy

After exploring the touristy sights of Rome we headed back to the hotel before dinner. We headed by foot to a great little restaurant that was made popular by Elizabeth Taylor during the filming of Cleopatra. Dinner was delicious! The walk back to the hotel made us feel better about having dessert with dinner.