A day in a 110 acre Country

We spent the day in the Vatican City, guarded by the Swiss gaurds, with its own postal service, money, laws, and population of about 800, it is the smallest country in the world. With its own power it is not subject to anyone/anything else, it can operate as it sees fit.
We were determined not to take a tour because they can hold you back and you just feel silly following someone waving a colourful stick in the air. But after seeing the line-up to get into the Vatican Museums (Sistene Chapel) wrapped around the block, we succombed quite quickly. Joining the tour allowed us to skip the lines and go through the Vatican Museum accompanied by an energetic-almost to the point of annoying- blonde New Yorker who provided us with historical facts and pretty much Michelangelo's full life story.
Out of all the places we've been, this was by far and away the most crowded. When its 33 degrees outside, it doesn't feel good to rub up against the sweaty tourists that have felt all of that heat. But somehow, the Vatican pulled through and was able to awe me so much that the tourists were less on my mind than they could've been. We saw the sarcophogus of Constantine's mother (the guy who legalized Christianity). It was made out of Porphyry -- a purple marble that is now extinct. It is so rare that it is worth $150,000 per square inch and 85% of it is in the Vatican. One of the layers of Napoleon's tomb is made out of the same stuff (re: Paris blog). There are 1500 rooms in the Vatican Museum and if you stopped for a minute in front of each piece in the Museums you would be there for 12 years. Insane, I think so. Needless to say, we didn't see everything. We walked through the Gallery of Maps to the Sistene Chapel where we saw Michelangelo's ceiling and back wall of the Last Judgement looking down on the few panels painted by the man who taught him to paint, Domenico Ghirlandaio. This seems like a pretty amazing feat for a guy who didn't think he could paint.
We then walked up the over 600 steps to the top of the dome (Cupoloa) of St. Peter's Basillica. It was like walking in an Alice in Wonderland dream - all of the walls began to angle in on you as you walked higher up, the stairs were very steep and narrow at most points but the view from the top was great. You caould not only see all of the Vatican city but a 360 degree view of Rome. Interesting to think that you can see one whole country at once from one place.
St. Peter's Basillica is MASSIVE. Built on the bones of St. Peter (one of the Disciples and the first Pope) this church is the largest in the world and you can't help but wonder how people could have built it with much much less than what we have now. It can accomodate 60-70,000 people. Following St. Peter, the rest of the popes have been buried beneath the floor of the Basillica, in the Grottoes, which we visited. I expected it to feel more like the catacombs, you know, a little more deathy, but instead it was brightly lit, marble floors, and more museum-like.
Sweating in our required long pants and covered shoulders, which we later discovered could have been longer shorts and even skirts, we made our way back to the hostel to pick up our bags to leave for Napoli.

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