Vatican Day

January 21

Alrighty, we arrived in Rome about 11:30 with the sole intention of spending the day in and around Vatican city. I'm not going to write much, since the pictures will speak for themselves and even then, they fail to do proper justice.

The good 'ole panorama from St. Peter's Square.

One of my favorite pics, this guy sits in front of the steps to St. Peter's Basilica.

We decided as a group that it would be worth 5 Euro and climbing 551 steps to reach the top of the Cupola. If you look at the first panorama and look at the 3rd topmost ring on the dome, there are actually people up there. Yeah, it's huge.

A sadly incomplete panorama of the inside ceiling of the dome that you walk through on your way to the top.

You can see all of Rome in every direction at the top.

Facing away from St. Peter's Square. The long building on the right is the 4 mile expanse of the Vatican Museum. Of course I had to take advantage of using the tilt-shift effect.

The rest of the photos are from the inside of the Basilica. I'm not going to write anything because frankly, I hardly spoke for the better part of an hour and a half that I spent inside. Click for a full-view.

These are the best of the ones I've managed to edit so far. I can only say that I will be returning to the Basilica again and that if you do nothing else exciting in your life, you should at least come to Rome.