Vatican City/Rome

June 30

We toured the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica today. The Vatican City is the worlds smallest country. It is not part of Italy, but has it's own government. The head of state is - you got it, the Pope. The museum has many fine works of art, shown as a display or as part of the buildings themselves. The pinnacle of the tour was going inside the Sistine Chapel. Seeing these marvelous paintings by Michelangelo of which I have seen pictures all of my life was astounding. The chapel was actually smaller than what I had imagined. It is in this chapel that conclave is held where the new pope is selected by a large group of cardinals. St. Peter's basilica is the largest cathedral in the world. It was enormous inside and seemed to go one forever. The church was filled with sculptures, paintings and other works of arts, the most famous being Micelangelo's Pieta.
That evening, we gathered at a restaurant in Rome and were serenaded by an Italian singer with an accordianist where they sang traditional Italian songs as we celebrated our last evening in Italy. It was an amazing trip, particularly to hear the choir sing so much.