While trekking in Italy during June of 2023, my wife Becky had indicated that she wanted to do a tour through Vatican City in Rome. We did that by starting at the Vatican Museums.

At the site where St. Peter was martyred, the Vatican became the residence of the Catholic popes who succeeded him. Decisions made here have shaped the destiny of the world, and the great Basilica of St. Peter’s draws pilgrims from all over the Christian world. The papal palaces beside St. Peter’s house the Vatican Museums. With the added attraction of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, their wonderful collections of Classical sculpture make them the finest museums in Rome.

The Vatican’s position as a state within a state was guaranteed by the Lateran Treaty of 1929, marked by the building for a new road, the Via della Conciliazione.

Imaged above, the Vatican City, a center of power for Catholics all over the world and sovereign state since 1929, is ruled by the pope. About 1,000 people live here, staffing the Vatican’s facilities.

We decided to start our tour of the Vatican City by entering through the north gate to visit and explore the Vatican Museums. Four centuries of papal patronage and connoisseurship have resulted in one of the world’s greatest collections of Classical and Renaissance art.

Imaged above, the Vatican museums are 14km long and there are about 2,000 rooms in the museum. Becky and I started, by the ‘Vatican Gardens’, (pictured below). This was in front of the Academy of the Sciences. This was originally Caligula’s Circus, which was later enlarged by Nero. Nero reigned from 54-68AD and during his reign there was a great fire in 64AD. So Nero blamed the Christians, which was considered a new strange sect and told them that the Roman Gods were angry at them for worshiping only one God. Saint Peter died during this persecution.

Peter knew that his time had come and he had to go to Rome and die for his faith. He was arrested and then crucified in Nero’s Circus. Peter asked to be crucified upside down, because he thought he was not worthy to be crucified the same way as Jesus. Peter was then buried in a small necropolis next to the circus and over time this became a place for worship for the increasing number of Christians in the city. Later, Emperor Constantine decide to become Christian and ordered the building of Saint Peters Basilica. The building was built on the site of Saint Peters burial place. The Basilica was eventually consecrated in 326AD.

Picture above, Becky and I got an amazing view of the dome of Saint Peter’s, a design by Michelangelo. Even though Michelangelo considered himself to be a sculptor, he had the capacity to become amazingly good at something else. So later in life, Michelangelo started with architecture. Michelangelo re-designed the dome in 1547, when he was 72 years old, and came up this amazing design. It was the tallest dome in the world with a height of 136.57m.

Pictured above, the first courtyard we entered on our way to exploring the Vatican Museums was the “Cortile della Pigna”. It was of course named after that big bronze pine cone that used to stand somewhere in the medieval city of Rome before it was moved here in second century AD. The two peacocks on the side came from Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli. [Peacocks always represented immortality in ancient art, because it was believed that the flesh from the peacock did not rot after death].

Pictured above, the ‘Cortile della Pigna’ was used for parties and receptions. In the middle of the courtyard we could see a big bronze globe. It was a gift to John Paul II in 1990 from a famous modern Italian artist named Arnaldo Pomodoro. It actually has two spheres. It is said that it represents the Vatican as its own world inside the rest of the world.

When Becky and I crossed the courtyard and entered the museums on the other side, we saw a huge collection of ancient busts and statures on the right. These busts were probably of emperors, senators and gods. When we walked up the stairs to the left of the entrance, we couldn’t help notice the frescos painted on the wall. This style became popular at the end of the 15th century. [Around this time, some strange caves were discovered in Rome, decorated with beautiful frescos that happened to be Emperor Nero’s golden house]. The Frescos next to the stairs became a style known as “Grotesque”, from the Italian grotto for the cave.

Pictured above, on top of the stairs, we could see a nice view of Rome out the window on our right. From here we could see the dome of the Pantheon & the mountains of the Castelli Romani. These mountains are where the summer home, (Castel Gandolfo) of the pope resides. This is also Vatican territory.

Pictured above, at the end of the hall for the viewpoint is the stature of ‘Apoxyomenos’. It is a roman copy of a very famous lost statue by the Greek sculptor Lysippos. This artist worked at the court of Alexander the Great. In ancient time, wrestlers would often put oil all over their body as a form of protection and to make them slippery. This statue is depicting an athlete that is using an artifact to scrape off the oil and sweat from his body. Romans use this method in the bath-house to clean themselves before bathing.

Pictured above, the ‘Octagonal Courtyard’ was the location where the Vatican Museums started. Julius II put the statue of the Laocoon and other ancient statues that he bought here for the public to see. The courtyard was transformed into an octagonal space in the 1700s by architect Michelangelo Simonetti. Besides the statues, we could see a lot of sarcophagi and bathtubs (made of marble or granite) from ancient times.

Pictured above, this statue, which shows the river god (Arno) in a traditional reclining pose, dated from the time of the Emperor Hadrian. The statue can be identified with the River Arno, which flows through Florence.

Pictured above, the most important statue in the ‘Octagonal Courtyard’ is the Laocoon Group. It dates back to the first century AD. It is called a monolithic statue because it was made from one single block of marble. It represents the ‘Trojan Priest’ that warned the Trojan’s of the coming doom of the gifted Trojan Horse. He warned the Trojans not to take in the giant wooden-horse. But then two snakes came from the sea and devoured the priest and his two sons. The Trojans thought this meant the gods wanted them to take in the horse. So they did and in the night the Greek warriors came out of the belly of the horse, opened the city gate and troy was destroyed. You can see the fear and pain in the expressions. Even in antiquity this was a very famous piece and influenced other sculptors of the baroque time.

As we continued down the way, on our right, we saw a room called the ‘Room of the Animals’. We could see may beautiful statues of animals. They were all ancient, but often heavily restored in the 19th century. Apparently, the romans really like these kinds of statues. The really liked representations of day to day life in their homes.

Pictured above, the left ‘Room of the Animals’ was lit up with a window. The most interesting statues were the Marine Centaur with Nereid’s and cupids that dates back to the first century BC. In the middle of the wall, we could see ‘Mithras killing a bull’ and was part of the ‘Mithras Group’. The cult of Mithras came from Persia and became very poplar in Rome at the same time as the beginnings of Christianity. The cult believed that the shedding of the bull’s blood marked the beginning of the creation. Looking closely, we could see the little three headed devil by his knee that tries to stop Mithras from killing the bull.

Pictured above, the next room was the ‘Room of the Muses’. We could see the muses standing with their backs to the wall all around the room. They were meant to be seen only from the front. The room was designed by Michelangelo Simonetti and the ceilings were frescoed by Tommaso Conca at the end of the 18th century. [The muses were seven daughters of Jupiter and they represented different arts]. The decoration of the ceiling served as a backdrop to the statues, and depicted Apollo and the Muses inspiring the arts.

Pictured above, the statue in the middle is very important and is called the ‘Belvedere Torso’. We do not know who it represents, but this torso was of an immense influence on the art of Michelangelo. It was an original Greek statue as we could see by the inscription on the front. It was signed with the name “Apollonius”. This piece was found in the 15th century at the site of the Roman baths of Caracalla near the Circus Maximus. It was believed to be Hercules, because of the Lion skin he was sitting on.

Pictured above, the next room was called the “Round Room” and was designed by Michelangelo Simonetti. It was clearly based on the Pantheon’s design.

Pictured above, the center of the ‘Round Room’ stands a monolithic basin. It is made out of one piece of ‘red porphyry’ that comes from the time of Emperor Nero. This bath stood in Nero’s enormous golden house. ‘Red Porphyry’ was known as the Emperors marble, because purple was the color of the Emperors and the rock at that time could only be found in a remote place in Egypt. Additionally, the mosaic floors in this room date back to the second century BC and depicts the battle of the Centaurs. This mosaic came from bathhouse in Ostia, (the old port of Rome).

Pictured above, is the first statue found next to the entrance of the ‘Round Room’. It is of Antinous, (the lover for Emperor Hadrian). Hadrian met him in Greece when Antinous was just a boy and the Emperor was 54. Antinous accompanied Hadrian on his many travels until the boy drowned in Egypt in the Nile. Hadrian was struck with grief and declared the boy a god. He then ordered statues to be made to be worshipped throughout the empire.

Pictured above on the left from the ‘Round Room’, is a statue of Emperor Galba. [In the civil war following Nero’s death Galba promised the Praetorian Guard riches if they supported him to become emperor. Once Galba was emperor he refused to pay up in 6 months, and the Praetorian Guard then murdered him]. Pictured above on the right from the ‘Round Room’, is a statue of Emperor Claudius. [He was the nephew of the notorious Emperor Caligula. When Caligula was murdered, the Praetorian Guard proclaimed Claudius Emperor, because he promised them money and he was the only one of the imperial family still alive. He ended up being a decent emperor that conquered Britain.

Pictured above, the next room was called the ‘Room of the Greek Cross’. It was also designed by Michelangelo Simonetti, in 1780. The two sarcophagi are from the 4th century AD and are made of ‘red porphyry’. They were meant for Emperor Constantine’s father and daughter.

Pictured above, next to the stairs on the wall we could see another bust of Hadrian. He was the first emperor to have a beard, which he wore according to Greek fashion. Hadrian started a new fashion that continued for many years after.

When Becky and I moved out of the ‘Room of the Greek Cross’ and the stairs, we came across a small room that houses a few very beautiful roman statues, (pictured above). Statues and sarcophagi depicted scenes from athletic competitions and circus games. We could see athletes throwing discus, wrestling, and competing in chariot races. The antique works were positioned around a beautiful marble chariot which stood in the middle.

Next was a long-hall, ‘the quarter-mile walk’, that gave us a sense of the grandeur of the former papal palaces, once decorated with statues, urns, marble floors, friezes, tapestries, and stuccoed ceilings. The first room along the long-hall was the Galleria-della-Candelabra, named after the candle holders in the niches. Pictured above, on our right we saw a goddess with what looked like a lot of breasts, (or testicles from bulls). She is Diana, or Artemis in Greek. She is the goddess of hunting and fertility.

Pictured above, the next statue that is of interest was the one on the left side of the ‘Gallery of the Candelabra’. It was ‘Bacchus’, the God of Wine. He was carrying a little boy on his back. It is very famous because it still had the original glass eyes.

The next room was the ‘Gallery of the Tapestries’. Pictured above, on the left wall we could see the tapestries representing the life of Christ, (the birth). They are based on designs by the school of Raphael, but they were woven in the Flanders, where the best weavers could be found in the 1500s. It would take 9 years to finish just one Flemish tapestry. They were made out of the most precious materials like gold thread, silk, silver thread and wool. While we passed the tapestries, the ceilings looked like they were carved. However, they were painted. It is a technique call Chiaroscuro. The artist paints shadows to make his painting look 3-dimensional, (pictured on the left above).

Pictured above, the next tapestry showed the ‘Transfiguration’. Jesus shows his true godly nature to the three apostles. He begins to shine with a white bright light and then Moses and Elijah appear next to him. Then a voice from the sky calls him son.

Pictured above, the next three tapestries depicted the massacre of the innocents and on the 3rd we could see the Pantheon on the top left. Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem, to avoid the dethroning by a newborn ‘King of Jews’, whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi.

Pictured above, the next tapestry represented the resurrection of the Christ. After the Romans crucified Jesus, he was anointed and buried in a new tomb by joseph of Arimathea. God raised him from the dead after 3 days and he appeared to many people over a span of 40 days before he ascended into heaven. This was the most famous tapestry.

The next gallery was called the ‘Gallery of the Maps’. It was 120m long. There are 40 maps in this room. It seemed like the maps on the left of us represented the west side of Italy and all the maps on our right represented the east of Italy. Pictured above, the ceiling was breathtaking. We saw 80 episodes from the history of the Catholic Church and the lives of the Saints. All the stories that were painted took place in the territory of the maps beneath them. The maps were painted and designed by the most famous cartographers of the late 1500s, who were led by Ignazio Danti, a Dominican monk. This was an amazing achievement because they did not have modern technology like aerial photography and satellites at that time.

At the end of the ‘Gallery of the Maps’ was the map of Italia Antica. Pictured above, this showed how Italy used-to-be in Roman times. Then on our left, there was a map of Italia Nova. This showed Italy how-it-was at the time the maps were commissioned.

In the next room, from the ‘Gallery of the Maps’ was a crossroad-room. We had to decide to go had to decide to go straight ahead and go directly to the Sistine Chapel or we could go left and visit Raphael’s rooms. We chose the Sistine Chapel. On the way, we crossed through a room called the ‘Room of the Immaculate Conception’, (pictured above). The Frescos here were painted by Francesco Podesti in the 19th century. They showed scenes from the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in 1854. [According to the doctrine, Anne’s womb was without sin and so the Virgin Mary was born free of original sin and therefore Christ was born free of sin].

The Sistine Chapel contains Michelangelo’s ceiling and his huge “the Last Judgment”. The Sistine is the personal chapel of the pope and the place where new popes are elected. The ceiling shows the history of the world before the birth of Jesus. We see God creating the world, creating man and woman, destroying the earth by flood, and so on. God himself, in his purple robe, actually appears in the first 5 scenes. Along the sides, we see the Old Testament prophets and pagan Greek prophets and pagan Greek prophetesses who foretold the coming of Christ. Dividing these scenes and figures are fake niches decorated with nude statue-like figures with symbolic meaning. The key is to see 3 simple divisions in the tangle of bodies. Imaged above: (1) the central spine of 9 rectangular biblical scenes; (2) The line of prophets on either side; and (3) The triangles between the prophets showing the ancestors of Christ.

(Images above taken from “Rick Steves’ Pocket Rome”, 2016)

Michelangelo took 4 years to paint the whole ceiling, (1508-1512). He worked 18 hours/day and ate and slept very little. He slept on the scaffolding he built and when he woke, he would continue working. Michelangelo’s general theme was the coming of Christ. However, “sin” seems to be an additional theme. For instance, he starts with the drunkenness of Noah. Then God punishes humankind through a flood. Then, humans are expelled from paradise because the have sinned. But then as you walk forward and get closer to the altar, you find yourself getting closer to god creating light and dark. So it is the human journey to go from sin to god.

(The above images taken from “Rick Steves’ Pocket Book” 2016)

Michelangelo took another 6 years to paint the “Last Judgement” (1535-1542), the enormous fresco painted at the altar wall. The tone of this work was very different from that of the ceiling. The ceiling is about the coming of the savior. This work is much darker. It depicts the last judgement. In the middle, we see a beardless and very muscular Christ. With one had he raised the dead from their graves and with the other on he judges. He decides who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. So the message in the fresco is beware of what you do. You have to follow the right path, the catholic path or else you are going to to hell.

When Becky and I left the Sistine Chapel, we came out onto the Atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica. Imaged above, Bernini created the St. Peter’s Square which symbolizes the arms of the Vatican, which welcomes you as you enter the square from the east, (the two colonnades represent arms for the church).

Pictured above, the colonnade consists of 4 systems of pillars behind each other. Since they are set in a circular arrangement, there is one central point on each side of the square, close to the fountains where the align to make it appear that there is only one pillar. On top of the colonnade there are 96 statues. They represent Saints and other important people in the history of the church. Bernini designed these statues to be seen from afar and to be looked at from below, at an angle of 45 degrees.

Pictured above, there are 2 fountains on the square, made by Bernini and Maderno. The fountain by Maderno was already there when Bernini designed the square. Bernini created another one for symmetry.

Pictured above, the obelisk in the middle is 25m high and made from red granite. It already stood there when Bernini started working on the square. It was actually erected by Caligula. It came from Egypt, where it was created under the pharaohs. It was already 2000 years old then.

Pictured above, the Papal Palaces that we could see towering above St. Peter’s Square wee built in the late 1500s. Inside, there are 1400 rooms, 20 courtyards, and Olympic-sized swimming-pool, a bowling alley and a movie theater.

Pictured above, in front of the Basilica, we could see 2 statues. They were of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Peter had the keys to heaven in is hand. However, Paul had a sword in his hand. This is because he was not crucified, but beheaded by a sword. This was his right as a Roman citizen.

Pictured above, the balcony where the Pope is presented to the people of the world after the conclave is the one above the main door, with the red color on the walls on both sides. It is also from this balcony the Pope blesses the city and the world every Easter. Under the balcony there is a carving which show Jesus handing the keys to heaven to Saint Peter.

Becky and I decided to move into & explore the St. Peter’s Basilica. Pictured above, the doors on the right are known as the ‘Holy Doors’. They were made of bronze and are closed with bricks on the inside. The ‘Holy Doors’ are opened only every 25 years in a Jubilee year, a Holy year. The next Holy year was supposed to be in 2025, but Pope Francis proclaimed a special Holy year for 2016. This was unusual. The last timed they were opened was in the year 2000 by Pope John Paul II. The opening of the ‘Holy Doors’ always takes place on Christmas Eve. The Pop knocks on the doors with a silver hammer and they open up. He is the first to got through and followed by the rest of the clergy and pilgrims. They symbolize the entrance to heaven and if you pass through your sins are supposedly forgiven.

Imaged above, the main doors were in the middle. Inside there were 44 altars, 11 domes, 778 columns, 135 mosaic paintings and 395 statues. The church is 192m long and is the largest church in the world.

Pictured above, the nave of St. Peter’s Basilica gave us a sense of the splendor of ancient Rome that was carried on by the Catholic Church. The floor plan, (with a large central aisle or nave flanked by 2 side aisles), is based on the ancient Roman basilica or law-court building. The ornate, Baroque-style interior decoration, (a riot of marble, gold, stucco, mosaics, columns of stone, and pillars of light), was part of the Church’s ‘Counter’ Reformation. Baroque served as cheery propaganda impressing followers with the authority of the Church, and giving them a glimpse of the heaven that awaited the faithful.

Pictured above, Becky and I immediately looked up to see Michelangelo’s dome. It was a beautiful piece of architecture. I believe that it was Michelangelo’s idea to make the dome like the Pantheon’s, but lifted up on pillars. The words around the dome say in Latin, “Tu es Petrus er super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum“. This means: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church and I will give you the keys to heaven”. This famous sentence, Jesus said, and on which the Popes base their authority as successors of Saint Peter, who is considered the first Pope.

Becky and I noticed a red circle on the floor that was a bit of center with the nave, (pictured above). The circle was made of maroon colored porphyry stone, that we saw in the Vatican Museums.

Pictured above, ‘La Pieta’ statue by Michelangelo is one of the most famous in the world. {Pieta means pity or sorrow}. Michelangelo was only 23 years old and it took him 1 year to sculpt it. ‘La Pieta’ is the only artwork by the artist that was signed.

Close to the entrance of the nave, we could see the monument in honor of Christina of Sweden. She was a protestant queen who became Catholic. However, Sweden was a protestant nation, so she had to give up her throne. She then moved to Rome when she was 29 yrs old in 1655 and was welcomed as a hero.

There are a few Popes buried on this level of the church. The other 147 are buried in the crypt, which we visited later. Pictured above on the left was the body of Pope John Paul II (died in 2005), and on the right is Pope John XXIII (died in 1963). [Note the painting of the ‘Transfiguration by Raphael’ (his last work). Here, Jesus starts flying and Elijah and Moses appear next to him in the sky. The apostles, (St. John, St. Peter, and St. James), fall down, blinded by the light.

After passing John Paul II’s grave, we saw the ‘Chapel of the Holy Sacrament on our right, (pictured above). This seems to be the only place in the Basilica where you can pray in silence. The altar inside was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The Catholic Church considers Saint Peter to be the first Pope. Pictured above, this statue of St. Peter was made by Arnolfo di Cambio around 1500. Every year, on the feast day of Saint Peter and Paul, the statue is dressed up in Papal robes.

Pictured above, the ‘Baldacehino’ is the 4-legged structure above the Papal altar in Saint Peter’s Basilica. One of the most important decorations, (commissioned to Bernini), would be the ornamentations of the Papal altar, above the grave of Saint Peter. It had to be seen through for the ‘Cathedra Petri’ and it had to be made of Bronze, (stolen from the Pantheon’s front porch beams). Therefore, the columns were created from bronze and then ornamented with gold. They were twisted to reference the whipping and suffering of Jesus. Other decorations are laurel leaves and bees. The ‘Baldacchino symbolizes heaven. The monument at the back of the church was also made by Bernini. ‘Cathedra Petri’ is Latin for the Seat of Peter.

It was decided there should be balconies in the main columns that supported the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica. Inside these columns, some of the most important relics of the church were kept to show the people. Bernini designed the balconies and the bas-reliefs above them. Under the balconies, (pictured above), Bernini made space for 4 important statues, one of Saint Andrew (Peter’s brother and patron saint of Scotland & Greece), one of Saint Veronica (she saw Christ fall for the 3rd time when he was carrying his cross up the hill and stepped forward to wipe his face with her veil), one of Saint Helen (Emperor Constantine’s mother, who brought the cross back from Jerusalem), and one statue of Saint Longinus (the soldier that used his lance to pierce the side of Christ while he was on the cross and later martyred, because he showed mercy to God’s son).

Pictured above, this beautiful and extravagant monument was finished by Bernini at the age of 80. Note that Bernini, very cleverly, used the door in his composition. Also note the skeleton-of-death coming from under the big cloth, with his hands up. In his hands he holds an hourglass, saying Alexander’s time has come. The cloth represents the cloth of death, (which covers everything), and the door symbolizes the passage to the next life. The female figures represent the 4 virtues of the Pope: Justice, Prudence, Charity and Truth (with her foot over a globe).

Pictured above, once Becky and I explored the crypt, we left the Basilica and headed east towards the ‘Castel Sant’Angelo’, (pictured below).

Pictured above, Emperor Hadrian designed the “Castel Sant’Angelo” as his own tomb (139AD), a towering cylinder that is 70m high and 23m in diameter, topped by a cypress grove and crowned with a huge statue of Hadrian himself riding a chariot.

As Rome fell, the mausoleum became a fortress and prison. When the archangel Michael appeared miraculously above the structure in 590AD, the “castle” was renamed for this “holy angel”. Through the centuries it was expanded upward and connected to the Vatican via an elevated corridor, making it a handy place of last refuge for threatened Popes, (pictured above). It also happens to contain the ‘Sala del Tesoro’ (Treasury of the Vatican).