When in Rome, stand in line.

This is inside St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, Rome. There are a number of beautiful paintings, statues, alcoves, etc. in the church. Pictures of some of these follow.

Above is the monument that was erected over the original burial site of St. Peter. We took an underground tour of the necropolis that the Bascilica was contructed over, and saw that there is an entire Pagan graveyard underneath the chruch. It is very creepy, since the tombs were there before the chruch. The tops of many of the mausoleums had to be chopped off to make room for the foundation of the building, but the coffins were left undisturbed. The builders basically just filled in the empty space inside the masuoleums with dirt to make the foundation. It wasn't until 1939, when Pope Pious (sp?) the eleventh wanted to be buried next to St. Peter, that excavationd began to look for his tomb. They actually did find it, although it took many years of archeological research and scientific analysis to prove it. The excavations of the buried necropolis revealed two supporting walls to the grave, a secondary monument erected over the top at a later date by another Pope, and finally a small shelf of stone which was hiding the bones of St. Peter. They wouldn't have guessed the bones to be outside the tomb on a shelf, but fortunately someone had written on the stone "Peter" and "here." Years later, the bones were analyzed and it was officially acknowledged by the vatican. Most of the excavations went on during WWII in secret, by only 5 archeologists. Pretty incredible, when you think off all the tons of dirt they had to remove.

Interesting statue.

And another one.

The ceiling of the Bascilica.

More ceiling.

Above is Michelangelo's Pieta, which is a famous carving of Mary weeping over the crucified Jesus. Probably all of you knew that, but I didn't the first time I came here. Apparently, it used to be out in the open, but some crazy person tried to throw a bomb or rocks or something at it, so they had to put it behind glass.

The impressive outside of the Basilica, set up for a recent holiday.

Above is an obelisk stolen from the Karnak Temple in Luxor. It's the largest obelisk from ancient times, at 32 meters high. You'd think they would have picked something easier to ship as a trophy.

Above is one of the many decorated ceilings that you may see as you walk through the colossal Vatican Museum. I will note at this point for anyone planning to come to the Vatican that you should be prepared to stand in line all day for the priviledge. Not kidding. Sometimes the line wraps around the city wall itself, and it takes several hours to get in. This is the third time I've been here, and it's always the same. It's definitely worth it, but the entire museum is one long line through maze like hallways and rooms. So after you stand in line to get into the museum, you must stand in line through the whole thing, and then you have to get into a separate line to see the Basilica. I even had to stand in line for the bathroom for like 30 minutes. There was a bathroom nazi controlling the stalls. She wouldn't let ANYONE in for minutes at a time, even though some stalls were empty. If you tried to just walk in she yelled at you and you had to go back out. When it was finally my turn, I apparently chose the wrong stall, because I was chastized (in Italian) and sent to a different stall. The bathroom nazi was very huffy, and I thought for a moment I wasn't going to be allowed to go at all. But an elderly lady who needed help up the doorstep was entering just then, and as the bathroom nazi was helping her I managed to sneak in.

This is one of my favorite paintaings in the entire museum. It is called the School of Athens, by Raphael (sp?). In the forefront, leaning on a block of marble, is Michelangelo. It's difficult to get good pictures of these paintings because it is not very well lit, but also in the painting is Galileo, Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, and Raphael himself. They are all holding something which identifies them. Plato and Socrates are in the center, pointing up and down to indicate they are debating different theories of philosophy. Raphael is hard to find, he's kind of like a "where's Waldo" because most of his body is hidden and the picture is out of focus.

Another interesting ceiling shot.

One of the best things about traveling is the weird signs you see. I think this one best translates as "Caution: we didn't build these stairs properly, but rather than fix the slanty steps we will just warn you not to fall on your ass."

- Anna