Vatican City, Italy

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As a Catholic, I was very excited to start our day.  We got up really early to meet our tour guide from Walks of Italy tour group. Our guide's name was Ferdinando. We lucked out because he has a degree in archeology with a PHd in something related to archeology. So he was a wealth of information! I feel like we got more information about the history of the art and artifacts that are located in the museums of Vatican City. 

Ferdinando would give us the facts from an archeologist and historian view point. He also provided a lot of information on the city of Rome itself. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go see some of the things he told us about like where to see the artifacts from Jesus' crucifixion found at a church ( I think it was St. Paul's church, but I can't remember for sure). 

He told us that Christians were blamed for Rome burning by Nero in 64 AD. He also explained that St. Peter was executed by crucifixion because he wasn't a citizen of Rome. St. Peter asked to be crucified upside down because he felt unworthy of being crucified as Jesus had. St. Paul was executed by beheading instead of crucifixion because he was a citizen of Rome.

The Acorn Garden just inside the doors.


We got into the museums and Sistine Chapel before the crowds. There is so much history inside the museums. A lot of the art and tapestry are centuries old.

Curtis and I also walked down into the Papal Tombs. We saw the tomb of St. Peter and I can't describe the feeling I got. It's hard to describe what it's like being surrounded with all of the history. 

I convinced Curtis to walk up to the top St. Peter's Basilica. I enjoyed the climb. Curtis not so much. But the views were great! 
That is St. Peter's Square that was made to an oval shape to signify the church embracing its faithful.

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