Vatican City...the religious center of Rome

We have spent some time over the week at Vatican City, the site of St. Peter's Basilica, St. Peter's Square, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums.

Vatican City is not very big, the smallest city state in the world but it attracts the largest number of people who visit Rome and we saw that on our first visit there.

 

Before I left home I bought tickets to the Papal Audience which is held in St. Peter's Square every Wednesday when the Pope is in Rome. It was quite the event!

There are 30,000 tickets given for a seat and the rest of the people stand.Here I am wondering where we will sit.

Here was the line when we got there at 7:15am.

The view across the square from our seats.

A picture of the square from the large tv screens at the front. There were 80,000 people in the square and on the surrounding streets. According to our guide the numbers here are growing every week since the election of this new Pope. His predecessor only drew about 8000 on average to a Papal Audience.

There was a lot of excitement in the air and the program started with names of church and then school groups who were visiting from all over the world. As their names were called there would be much cheering...

A group ahead of us from Philadelphia

This man wrapped in his flag was part of a group from Brazil...

 

Women from Nigeria...

Buddhist monks...

Brides and grooms who were being personally blessed by the Pope, apparently if you have been married in the last 3 months and come to Rome you can request a Papal blessing. We saw many couples going past us to the front.

And Don with his Papa Francesco flag....

Then the Pope arrived in his mobile car and started his trip around the Square...

There were lots of security around him but their job must be difficult as he stopped to chat with the crowd, took sips of people's drinks and took pictures with them. The crowd went crazy shouting and waving.

He also kissed a lot of babies...

We were sitting next to the barricades as he started to come up our pathway so he went right by us...

This is the best picture I got as he was within a few feet of us, unfortunately my camera has a grain of sand in the lens that only appears sometimes.This time it looks like the Pope has a black eye! But I like his smile!!

The rest of the program continues after everyone reaches the main stage and the Pope gives his message in many languages.

He then blesses everyone, their families, those who are sick and any religious items that people brought with them.

It ends with everyone standing saying the Lord's Prayer.

Don really appreciated being in attendance and I enjoyed the experience as well.

The next day we visited the huge Vatican Museums which was another experience given the huge crowds and the vastness of the place.

There are many rooms of wonderful art work, this one of centuries old frescos which were very detailed and colorful.

Masterpieces by Raphael

 

 

Fabulous tapestries

Many inner courtyards with modern art installations.

Corridors of ancient sculptures and many people

A wonderful Bernini staircase that was built so the Popes could climb to the top of the Papal apartments on horseback.

The place also had wonderful ceilings.

Intricate mosaics on the floors

I loved the modern art as well.

Then there was the Sistine Chapel with the ceiling by Michelangelo...

The beautiful walls. ( Both these pictures were taken from the internet as no photos allowed.)

So much art work in one place and that continued into St. Peter's but those pictures are for my next post. Rome is turning out to be a nicer city than we imagined.

 

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