The Vatican and Vatican city

 Here we are at the Vatican which is the smallest "country" in the world. There are about 800 living in this city-state and when you leave the city to live elsewhere you are no longer a citizen. There are 4 miles of displays and about 4,000 paintings here. We had a private tour with my college roommate and her husband that came to visit. Our tour was from 8:30 AM and we finished a little after 2 PM.  We only touched the tip of the iceberg.  It is amazing!!

Here you can see some of the outer walls of the Vatican city.

This is the private garden for the Pope and can be closed at anytime. Pope Francis has chosen not to live in the Palace because to him it was too grand, so he lives in the convent with the friars but they do not serve him. The convent is over where you see the ugly communication tower.  The tower is for Vatican Radio, installed in 1930 and reaches with clear signal to all of Italy.

Tapestry of The Last Supper. I left the people in so you could see how big it is.

This was first sketched by Rafael on paper (known as the cartoon) then painted on wood.

Known as Caravaggio-( Milano 1571-Porto Ercole 1610)   " Deposition"  This work realised between 1600-1604 was commissioned  by Girolamo Vittrice for the family chapel in Santa Maria church in Vallicella.

The pine cone of Fertility located in the garden. It was a fountain but the pipes have broken and it no longer works.

This the opposite end of the pine cone Garden.  The sphere will spin around- as the world turns...

Created by Arnaldo Pomodoro
Mociano di Romagna in 1990
Bronze 400 cm diameter.

Our friends with our tour guide, Federica DiFolco She was wonderful and so knowledgeable with and i-pad of photos to use as examples.

In the sphere atop this dome, 19 people can fit.......

The corridor of busts. If they are placed separate the Pope felt they had more importance; however there is no chronology. There are about 900 busts in this corridor that connects the palace to the museum.

This spiral staircase was made by Picco Ligorio 1564 for the reigning pope Rovere.  A "snail" staircase encased in a square tower nearly 19 m. high with 36 columns decreasing in size. They are Tuscan order through Doric to Ionic.  It is said he needed them so he could take a donkey ride up to his palace because he was too fat to walk.  The poor donkey :(

The necklace was a Pectoral in gold sheet from Cerveteri Regolini- Galassi tomb
                                                          c mid 7th century BC !!!!!!!

Tapestry room that is massive with rows of beautifully woven scenes with gold threads.

Map room that is 400 feet long. It took 2 yrs for 2 painters and 16 map painters in 1583 to do these.
These are 85% accurate to today's map.  They even have smaller scale maps for some of the cities!

More large rooms that had painting on the walls and ceilings of the artist Francesco Podesti (1800-1895)  These paintings were done 1856-1865.

The floors were as beautiful as the walls and ceilings. I have so many more pictures and stories from this visit but it would be endless looking.  Here below is the last picture I will show and this man who is painted by Raphael, is Michelangelo

I have no pictures of the Sistine Chapel because they don't allow any cameras. We were able to use our cameras without flash in the rest of the museum.  David and I had been here 22 yrs ago and we could take pictures but it has since been cleaned. An amazing site but an awful lot to look at.  Fortunately our guide had given us a brief lesson before we went in. No talking in the chapel
Before I leave you, I wanted to give you a lesson on Michelangelo. He started as a sculptor not a painter. It took him 4 years to paint the ceiling and he was standing up -looking up contrary to what we have always been told that he was lying down.

So I hope you have enjoyed the work as much as I have.
Ciao :)