The Vatican

Visiting the Vatican wasn't on my bucket list, but it should have been! How amazing the whole experience has been. Visiting the Sistene Chapel literally took my breath away. Because our guide had gone over the details of the artwork before we entered the building, I was able to pick out images that I would not have been able to before his talk. Just the sheer magnitude of the artwork and the skill involved was pretty amazing. One interesting fact I learned was that the Japanese had paid to have the paintings cleaned in the past couple of years. As part of their agreement, they have the copyright to the images. Thus, they are the only ones who can take pictures of the ceiling until 2015. We also visited Saint Peter's Basilica when Peter is buried. Twenty thousand people a day visit this site. While the area was filled with beautiful statues, we had to hurry through because of the magnitude of the crowd. We also visited a priest in Saint Ann's Church. Saint Ann was the mother of Mary and the grandmother of Jesus. The priest's talk was very informative and helped clear up some questions I had about the Catholic religion. We finished with a visit from a former Swiss Guard and witnessed the changing of the guard. Karen Wells