Vatican Museums, St. Peter's, and St. Cecilia

Yesterday (Friday) we spent all morning in the various Vatican Museums. We started with a "before they open" guided tour. That took us through all the big stuff, including the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms where "School of Athens" is a fresco on the wall.

We had breakfast inside the museum grounds and then went in search of the Raphael and di Vinci paintings they have. It took a while but we finally found the right place. As we are working our way through we can see one room blocked off, chairs set up inside and the occasional sound check coming over speakers. Can you guess what room is closed? Of course, the one with the Raphael's! But we could see the Transfiguration through the doorway.

However, I realized in Vinci (the town) that there aren't that many di Vinci paintings and I had already been in museums to see most of them. I really wanted to see "St. Jerome in the Desert" - which would leave only 3 di Vinci paintings that I haven't seen. But it was in the closed room! Greg saved the day. While I was looking the painting up so we would be sure we knew if we found it (since we couldn't see the placards) Greg was sticking his head between the wall and the glass door to see one more painting in the room. It was the di Vinci! Then I had to stick my head in the tiny spot... and not up high - because there was a painting frame blocking normal height looking. I had to squat down and squeeze my head into the corner to see it. But I did! So happy Greg was so determined to find it that he was crawling around behind glass doors for me.

We spent a lot of time enjoying the various museums until finally we were museumed out.

We spent the afternoon in St. Peter's Basillica.

We went through the Rick Steves walking tour and then walked around some more. We went through the underground tombs (the free part). And finally we went up into the dome. The dome is made in two parts an inner and outer dome. There is enough space between the two to walk up a very tight passage way and come out on the top. I did it. It was super tiny, but not super popular so it wasn't just one person behind the next. And there is a second stairway to go down, so no passing.

We took a bus to Treveste. For some reason i fell in love with the story of St. Cecilia as a child. We took a bus across town and went to her church.

If you zoom in you can see that car says "just married". When we arrived the wedding Mass was happening. The Mass finished just as it was time for the church to close. Thankfully I still got to walk through the artwork and see the statue of St. Cecilia that is under the altar.

We did another walking tour around the area. And then headed back to the neighborhood of our airbnb to get dinner. 

It was a great day.