I think I’m officially out of adjectives to describe the things we’ve seen here. I can tell you that I’m glad I saw all the other basilicas and churches before we saw St. Peter’s. It is enormous. The inside hall is over 600 feet long – two football fields. It may be even taller. This wasn’t just ornate, it was classy – I’m not sure it could be any better – really.

The Vatican, of course, is its own country and is relatively large. We toured one of 11 museums. We were told it would take 7 years to see everything in every museum. It was outlandish in many regards. The statues, paintings, tapestry – just the overall collection in the one museum was hard to fathom.

We then went into the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo’s masterpiece. Honestly, it was too much. It was very cool to see. But it was one giant canvas with multiple paintings and it was really hard to take it all in. Not only that, it was dark and VERY crowded. Crowd control is an issue at the Vatican, so many people and so many tour groups. (speaking of tour groups, the descend on you like locusts and take over and devour everything around you – I’m officially annoyed with tour groups – and baby strollers).

Then on to St. Peter’s basilica. We also went beneath the basilica to see the tomb of Peter and the tombs of nearly 150 deceased popes. Besides Peter’s, the oldest one I saw was from the 13th century.

Again, all Christians and especially Catholics should see this place.

Okay – I promised pictures. Here are some: (I just checked how long since I posted a picture – whoops. Sorry). Here goes (some quickly chose highlights):

This is Sorrento:

A fountain in Rome:

The Pantheon:

A piazza in Rome:

The Duomo in Florence:

The leaning tower of Pisa:

The tiny Tuscan village of Voltaire that dates to 4 century BC:

The Roman Colosseum:

The Tuscan village of San Gimignnano that dates to the 8th century:

A random village on a random Tuscan hillside:

The real, original statue of David:

The seaside / cliff side village of Positano:

The ruins of Pompeii:

A part of the ancient Roman Forum:

Inside St. Peter’s Basilica:

The view from our hotel room at night with Mt. Vesuvius looming over the Bay of Naples:

The view from our table for lunch one day beside the Mediterranean Sea: