The Vatican

Well, day two of Rome was spent at the Mecca of Catholicism. We took the underground to the other side of town to go see the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Good thing we had reservations or it would have been a 2 hour wait! But we were an hour earlier than our reservation time--better early than late. We took the time to walk around the outer wall of the entire city. Here's a picture of Lu with the Pope! I think he's stepped out for a moment actually...

After a brief "discussion" over the cost and benefits of the audio tour we were on a journey through the history of civilization. From mummies to Michelangelo to modern art, we saw it all.

We even stopped by the lesser-known carriage exhibit in the basement! Never has one seen so many statues, busts, and frescoes. The museums were wonderful and the audio tour was well worth the price (thanks Lu for insisting)! Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel. As a very angry Italian man once said, "NO FOTO!" After 2 hours in the museums there was still plenty of day left. We ran over to St. Peter's Basilica and queued in the closest line. After learning that the price to get into wherever we were going was 5 Euros (7 if you take the lift instead of the stairs) each we hesitated, but ended up enduring the wait and heading up the stairs to the Copula (cool dome at the top). We saw cool mosaics (Mom L, you should look at this) and got our money's worth with great views inside and out (thanks again Lu).

Peter's grave speaks for itself.

Too bad a crazy man in the 70's prevented us from seeing this any closer....
Lu was in heaven.

After a long day at the Vatican we couldn't stop. We headed back to the old Roman Forum to see a few things we missed the day before. BUT we didn't take into consideration the fact that tourism pretty much shuts down at four or five in the afternoon. This is as close as we got to the mouth of truth.