St. Peter's Basilica from St. Peter's Square There is a taxi line on the opposite side of the Pantheon and although the Vatican City is only about a 25 minute walk from our hotel, on Friday morning we took a taxi to near St. Peter's Square so we could be there earlier and fresher for being on our feet for most of the next 8 hours. We walked St. Peter's Square and then were delighted to find that there was no line waiting to visit St. Peter's Basilica. The large (over 200 yards deep) space is very ornate and we started our slow exploration of the huge church with the most famous art, Michelangelo’s "Pietà" depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus. The beautiful art filling the church is overwhelming. In addition to the nearly countless individual pieces of art, the walls and ceiling are filled with mosaics which look like paintings, but preserve the colors so much better. We did not do the tour to the top of the dome.
From St. Peter's, we circled the outside wall of Vatican City to the other side and arrived at the Vatican Museums a little before our timed entry. We had a museum tour which showed a small part of the grounds and some of the highlights of the 20,000 works of art currently displayed in 54 galleries that would be several miles of walking to see every work.
The tour ends at the far end of the museum near the Sistine Chapel which is the Pope's private chapel and the site of the papal conclaves where cardinals elect new popes. It was constructed in the 1470s and the walls have paintings by Botticelli and other top artists of the time. The fresco covering the ceiling was painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512 and includes "The Creation of Adam." One wall has an enormous fresco titled "Final Judgment" which Michelangelo painted near the end of his life. It had recent restoration work done and was covered with scaffolding until just two weeks earlier. This room is standing room only and no photography is permitted. The image of the ceiling I've posted is courtesy of the Vatican, which has a wonderful page where you can view every corner of the room and zoom in.
Meals this day were at Ristorante Bar dei Musei Pizza near the Vatican and Ristorante Fortunato al Pantheon, near our hotel.
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