As My memory Serves......: The Epic Eurotrip--Chapter 17: The Holy Grail (Vatican City)

I don't really remember how we got to Rome. I ate breakfast, I slept on bus, and bang! we're in Rome.

To be exact, we visited Vatican first. Vatican is the smallest country in the world. It only covers 110 acres and only has population of 800. It serves as the holy city of Catholicism, as everyone knows. Well, we didn't see Pope, and that's too bad.

Entrance of Vatican City

Since Vatican is its own country, we first have to go through customs. They check your luggage and your personal belonging. there's only one entrance as far as I know. People have to line up to get checked. There are two types of lines there: one with certified tour guide, which you can skip the majority of people; one without, which you basically travel and tour by yourself. As a big group, we got to skip the line by using the one with tour guide.

In Vatican City, they asked you to use ear pieces since they forbid tour guides yelling to a group of people. Especially when there are so many tourists. Having many tour guides all yelling at the same time in a holy place is just not a good idea.

Current Pope, Francis. He made a few comments few days ago about Amazon rain forest.
I like the way he thinks.

We got through a building to a garden first. This is called the Courtyard of the Pinecone, because of this:

The pine cone. It was originally found in Pantheon.

I think it's called "Sphere within Sphere," wasn't moving when we saw it. Someone
pushed it to make it move though. Not sure legal or not.

The Egyptian Museum

Vatican Museum has tons of different exhibits, and it's impossible for us to see all of them (some people might get bored, as well.) The one we visited was Museo Chariamonti. It's basically a long hallway with tons of sculptures and other art pieces. It's a one way street, and it's usually impossible to stop and look around during peak season. Luckily, we went in May, so the crowd wasn't horrible yet. The guide told us how it would be during summer. Imagine a Black Friday line in front of Fry's. Yep! Like that.

Snapshot of Museo Chariamonti, the sculpture area.

The Belvedere Torso. Apparently the way the muscles are sculpted
is highly praised and mimicked by sculptors in Renaissance era.

A lot of people in this narrow hallway.

The ceiling is flat. It looks very 3D thanks to the way
it's painted (with shadow and stuff)

Okay, a little note about this one:

This is one of the famous tapestries.

There are more than just this one, but they all share the same "mystery." They claim that if you stare at Jesus in this one while walking pass the carpet, you can notice that Jesus is staring back at you, wherever you go. It's true to certain extend. I did notice that eyes following me, but I have a theory for this. Since this is not painted on a canvas that is completely flat, the wrinkles on this carpet can cause the illusion of "eyes following you." I think it's all just the angle. Nonetheless, these are cool paintings.

I took this picture for a reason, but I forgot.

Something significant about this one. forgot what as well.

At the end of the hallway, we enter the famous Sistine Chapel. It's a chapel, so it's small (compare to churches.) It's basically one small rectangular house divided by some pillars and stairs into two sections. It is famous for the artworks done in this chapel. We weren't allowed to take pictures since it's a holy place, so here's a picture I found online.

Michelangelo, Boticelli, and many other artists contributed to complete this magnificent chapel. The most famous ones are still done by Michelangelo, especially this and this (which is truly magnificent).

I spent quite a while inside, partially because I want to check every painting and partially because that's the instruction I got from the guide. I spent around 20 minutes in there before moving towards the exit. Oh, in the chapel, beside photography, talking is also not allowed. I mean, yeah, you can try to murmur, but when 500+ people murmur altogether, it's not exactly quiet. Therefore, you can just hear those Swiss guards going "shhhhhhh!!!!" all the time to tourists. They must hate their job and the tourists.

Here comes another story of my getting lost. As I said earlier, I was given instruction that we should stay for 20 minutes and should meet at the exit. I waited there for a long time and no one showed. At one moment, I realized that there was no more Asian in the chapel. I told myself: "Shit, this is not right." So I rushed to the exit. There are 2 exits, one on the left leading back to the entrance, another on the right leading to St. Peter's Square. Let's just say I was really dumb and got lost. After calling our tour guide using a guard's cellphone, I found them in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Not having much time, I toured the church really fast (thus I missed the Pietahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieta......What a shame.)

The Pieta, done by Michelangelo. It's guarded by bulletproof glass,
according to other people.

Well, still, the moment I entered the church, I told myself: "I climbed this shit!!" There we go again, AC fans. This is one mission to get the hidden armor in AC: Brotherhood. The basilica was completed in 1506, and Brotherhood's story took place in, I think, 1499. It's a clever way to introduce tons of poles and wooden platforms everywhere in the church. This place is full of art pieces as well.

The Altar, done by Bernini. I fell on that several times in AC.

Here comes the blurry pictures. I didn't use flash and it was kinda dark inside. Flash wasn't allowed, but some people still use flash anyway. Tourists really need to start following rules. Just because you pay to visit, that doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want.

Another picture of the Altar

decoration on walls and ceiling.

Pope Benedict XIII

The detail they show is really awesome.

under the dome. The treasure is on top of the dome in AC.

I only stayed for less than 10 minutes because I was already late and didn't want other people to wait for me. Later I found out that more people were missing and we waited there for another 30 minutes (fuck my life. should have stayed longer.)

Outside of the basilica, It's the famous St. Peter's Square. This is where all Catholics gather to listen to the Pope every year. The plaza is huge, and it had a lot of seats (not sure what event it was fore.) Funny thing about this plaza is that the edge of it is the edge of Vatican city, so you can essentially be in two countries at once (one leg stepping on St. Peter's Square while the other in Rome.)