March 24, 2011 Thursday in Rome Day 4

Today we had another great coffee and disappointing breakfast in the hotel and then walked over to the Vatican to meet with our tour guide,Luke, the same guide we had for the Colloseum 3 weeks ago. We spent about 3 hours in the various Vatican museums including:
The Tapestry room, full of giant tapestries designed by the painter Raffael and woven in Belgium in the 16th century

The map room, full of ancient maps and globes of various parts of the world at different periods of time.

Many galleries of the most valuable paintings by the most famous painters eg Caravaggio to the Sistine Chapel, where we were not allowed to take photos although we saw many people doing so, the Gardens,

and the many galleries of sculptures from ancient Greece and Egypt

to the Rennaissance stars such as Michelangelo and Bernini.

Pieta by Michelangelo

 Much of this art was owned by well-known dudes like Nero circa 60AD and Constantine circa 350AD. Much of this art was pillaged by the Vatican from the Colloseum and the Pantheon etc.

After the Vatican tour we all went around to St Peter's Square. Tamara and I took a guided tour of the Basilica while Rick & Bob had a quick look around and headed to the pub. In the Basilica we saw the altar designed by Bernini.  Bernini used 62,000 tons of Bronze to build this altar, much of it from melting down all the bronze from the Pantheon

 In the Basilica we also saw the Dome designed by Michelangelo.  This Dome is taller than the Statue of Liberty. 

Then Tamara and I climbed the 551 steps to the top of the Dome.

The bronze ball on the top of the dome is the highest point in Rome. By law, nothing can be built taller.

Here are the statues on the from of St. Peter's Basilica as taken from the ground.

And here they are at their level, only 220 steps of the total 551 to the top, just to give an idea how big that dome is.

And here they are as taken from the top of the Dome