The Vatican City, day one in Italy!

Rome, oh my gosh...Rome.  Sean kept saying the entire time we were there, "I've never been romantic about a city before, but this place is amazing."  And it's true!  It was probably our favorite destination of the trip, and the perfect place to start out!

Our flight got in from JFK around 7 am 'Rome time', so needless to say we were exhausted.  We took a taxi to our hotel, got some breakfast and took a quick power nap before heading off to our tour of Vatican City. 

Literally, Vatican City blew my mind. Did you know that it's a completely different state?  Well, I'm a stupid American, and didn't know that.  Our tour guide, Valerie was amazing!  It was really nice to have a private guided tour.  She was completely focused on us, we didn't have to wait in any lines, and she was SUPER knowledgeable. 

 The entrance to Vatican City, packed...like everything else!

So apparently Romans and Catholics really like dome shaped buildings...they were everywhere.

 The Vatican is filled with museums, we definitely got our history on.

Keeping things lively...

Valerie told us these old coffins were made into fountains that they now drink out of...yummy?

 It was so crazy to think that these are just "hallways" in their museums.  Crazy!

Amazing.

  They had an entire portion of the museum dedicated to Egyptian history, the Gregorian Egyptian Museum.  There were a lot of monuments are artifacts from Egypt and parts of Rome, mostly from the Imperial age.  Sean really liked this part.

 There was so much symbolism throughout the entire Vatican City.  Valerie kept pointing out to us the "Coat of Arms", the two keys interlaced with the crown above it.  She told us the keys refer to the promise Christ gave to Peter,"I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

 They symbolize the power the Catholic Church believes that Christ gave to Peter^], with the gold key signifying that the power reaches to heaven and the silver key that it extends to all the faithful on earth, the crossing of the keys indicating the connection between the two aspects of the power, and the handles of the key being at the base to symbolize the power being in the hands of the pope. 

Just another amazing hallway...

Statue of 'The River God' in the Belvedere Court.

More glorious ceilings...

 Roman mosaic tile

This is the Holy Door, or 'Porta Sancta', which leads into St. Peter's Basilica.
 It only opens during their Holy Year (Jubilee), which only happens every 25 years (the last one in 2000).On the first day of a holy year, the Pope strikes the brick wall with a silver hammer and opens it to the pilgrims.

This is the inside of the Porta Sancta, it's completely bricked up, and cemented over!
 The Holy Door represents Jesus, the Good Shepherd and the gate of the sheep pen: "I am the gate. Whoever enters through me, will be safe. He will go in and out, and find pasture" (Jn 10:9).  

Apparently if you are one of the lucky "pilgrims" who get to walk through the door every 25 years, your sins will be forgiven, haha!  So, it looks like we will just HAVE to go back to Rome in 12 years...you know, for our redemption's sake.  

 ST. PETER'S BASILICA. 
 Oh my goodness, completely breathtaking.  My jaw literally dropped.  Valerie said the only word that captures St. Peter's Basilica is "amazing", and amazing it was.  Probably the most elaborate and beautiful building we had ever been in previously was the Salt Lake Temple.  Sean in his sacrilegious manner said, this makes the Salt Lake Temple look like white trash...haha, not exactly the words I would have chosen, but you get the point. (Luckily, we weren't smitten down instantly by God) 

The light coming through windows of the dome ceiling was so beautiful, it was almost angelic.

 I just kept thinking as we were walking through, how was this constructed in the 1500's?  
Seriously, so beautiful.

 Unfortunately this picture isn't wonderful, but this was one of the most beautiful sculptures in the Basilica.  Michelangelo carved it when he was only 24 years old, Valerie said it was the only sculpture he ever signed (which makes sense why it was guarded in glass, hence the glare).  
I don't know if you can tell, but the sculpture is of the Virgin Mary, holding Jesus Christ's body...I may or may not have teared up a little.  It was completely moving.  

 Sean thought it was weird that I took a picture of this, but you know what...everyone was doing it.  Valerie said that John Paul II was one of the most loved Popes, "A Pope of the People." 
Apparently in Catholicism, in order for a Pope to become a Saint there has to be at least 3 miracles performed.  When they moved his body in St. Peter's Basilica, his body was almost perfectly preserved, which according to Catholic leaders was another one of his miracles. Pretty cool...

Trying to capture the last bits of beauty!

 St. Peter's Piazza.
This is where the Pope comes out to bless the crowd, and for Sunday morning mass.
 

Swiss Papal Guards!
 Swiss Papal Guards are at all of the entrances to the Vatican City to provide security and protect the Pope. But mostly, they just stand there and look cool.
  It's a long story, but none of my hair products (hair dryer, straightener, curling iron, etc. would fit into any of our European outlets), hence the frizzy/air dried hair...so please don't judge me.

Our amazing tour guide, Valerie!  We ended the tour at the Vatican Museum gift shop, they actually have their own post office (not the fastest may I add) where we got to send out some post cards.

I finally got to be in two places at once, Rome and Vatican City!

Day one in Italy, success!

 The only room I don't have pictures of is the Sistine Chapel.  Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures in there...you would think it's not allowed out of respect, or something like that.  But it's actually because the Japanese own the rights...weird.  Sean actually snuck a few with his iPhone, which of course he thinks he may have deleted the 300+pictures he took on his phone while we were in Europe.  I may or may not kill him if he doesn't "find" them.  More posts to come! :)