Rome- the Vatican

Yesterday we had of day 'off' from the crowds of Rome. We did some washing, caught up on the bookwork and did some research on parking areas for Bluey for our stay in Paris and Lille for when we take the Eurostar train to London in late August. As it turns out it is good we are looking so early as there is a major fair in Lille during this time.
Today we planned an early start with the alarm going off at 6am. The effort was well worth it, with us being able to walk straight through security when we arrived at 7:30am. 

We decided to first visit the Dome and bought the €7 elevator ticket, to save our feet for the rest of the day. As it turns out, we still had to walk up 360 steps! No pain-no gain. We were rewarded by being at the base of Michelangelo's dome that is 365m high. We had a terrific view down into St Peter's Basilica and a close up of the beautiful mosaics and artwork of the Dome.

At the very top we went outside and enjoyed  360 views of Rome. 

St Peter's Square.

The VaticanMuseum 

After a roof top stroll we took the lift down into the Basilica, where we followed Rick Steve's audio guide. We learnt some interesting facts. Constantine first constructed a church here in AD 324 over St Peter's tomb which was rebuilt esp. in the 16th and 17th century. The dominant tone is set by Bernini, who created the Baldacchino (the canopy and main altar over St Peter's tomb).

We touched the sculptured foot of St Peter. 

We admired Michelangelo's Pieta, a very powerful sculpture of Mary holding Jesus after his crucifixion.

Next to this was the Holy Door which is bricked up for 24 years until Christmas Eve of the Holy year.
There was also many other beautiful statues and naves to be admired.

We were lucky enough to go down to the Grottoes, where many popes are buried including St Peter's tomb. 

From here we went to the meeting point of our prepaid tickets to the Vatican Museum. We had bought these from the info point at the campground. Even though they may have been over priced at €27.50 ea, we felt they were worth it when we walked past the mass of people waiting in line.
Like most tourist here, we made a bee line for the Sistine Chapel. We shuffled our way with the throng through the amazingly beautiful Raphael Rooms, including the Hall of Constantine, the Room of Heliodorus, Room of the Segnatura and the Room of the Fire in The Borgo. Our necks were sore from all of the gawking at the ceilings. 

We also experienced some Greek art along the way.

We finally made it the the piece de resistance...we were lucky enough to find a place to sit down and plugged ourselves in to our audio guide to learn about Michelangelo's frescoes creation in the Sistine Chapel. A frescoe can only be painted on wet plaster render, so you can only imagine how painstakingly long this amazing work took (4 years). There is of course the famously known painting of Adam and God nearly touching fingers, being the creation of Adam. No photos allowed!

After this we wondered through nearly empty rooms of the museum, admiring paintings, Pope mobiles through the centuries and other artefacts before calling it a day.

We had a walk over to Castel Sant'Angelo, next to the Tiber River but felt too spent to visit inside. We made our way back to the Metro and to Bluey.