The Vatican

The Vatican was the final country on my trip through Europe, although I wasn't done with Rome or a couple other cities in Italy, I did not enter any more additional countries. A main attraction is the Vatican Museum, within the museum is The Sistine Chapel, perhaps the most famous. I already talked about it in my post about Michelangelo, so I will leave that part out now.

The museum had a ton of other paintings, by even more famous painters then Michelangelo. Examples of these are da Vinci and Raphael.





This was on the ceilings of a lot of the halls. That gold coloured design, is real gold. Just goes to show you how much money is within The Vatican and the Museum. I'm sure a lot of those paintings are quite valuable as well.





This is the ceiling of other halls in the museum. They are quite similar to the Sistine chapel in the sense that every inch of the ceiling is covered. They were not painted by Michelangelo however and are not nearly as famous. I did like the bright colours, and how uncrowded the halls were compared to the chapel.



This is an outside view of St. Peter's Basilica. That dome is an iconic image of Rome, and you can see it from quite far away. On the inside, it is massive. I thought other churches were huge before, but they do not compare to this one. Standing below the dome and looking up is quite the site as well, it just seems to go on and on. St. Peter's tomb is right under the alter. He was the very first Bishop of Rome, or Pope.



This is Saint Peter's square. There were a ton of people just outside here. This is where people gather to see the Pope when he addresses people.
There are also a couple fountains just to the right and left.







A different view of the Basilica. They were really enforcing their dress code at this spot. It was a really hot day and my friend had to put her sweater on to get in because her shoulders were showing.