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Today was our group tour of the Vatican. We arrived at the City walls early in the morning, a line to get in already stretching several blocks. Thankfully, we already had reservations, and got to go in before everyone in line. (it was like having the fast pass at Disneyworld, passing by all of those people...)
We walked through the various wings of the Vatican museums and their tremendous collections of art - statues, mosaics, paintings, tapestries, frescoes, etc. Many of the former papal apartments now stand empty, some that we saw were painted by Raphael.
Our tour finally reached the Sistine Chapel, whose interior walls and ceiling vault is completely covered in frescoes. Michelangelo painted the ceiling and back wall, while other painters did the front and side walls. The Chapel is where the college of cardinals gather to decide the next pope. After that, we headed over to see the magnificent St. Peter's cathedral, the largest in the world. Designed by Michelangelo toward the end of his life, it replaced the former cathedral, which was crumbling. Almost every single pope is buried in the crypt beneath the cathedral, their hearts and lungs entombed in a different church within the city.
Amazingly large in scale, the cathedral doesn't seem as large as it is, as everything within it is similar in scale. All of the paintings within the cathedral are actually replicated mosaics, as the paintings were deteriorating, and were removed to a safer environment. A statue of St Peter, supposed to be the first in existance has one foot extended further than the other, and is said to bring luck to those who rub it.
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