I’m not sure if this is the same every day, but on the day we visited St. Peter’s there were tons of people lined up in the morning to enter. Once we got in we could barely move and it wasn’t all that enjoyable.

After St. Peter’s we went into the Vatican Museum (which was also extremely crowded). In late afternoon, after coming out of the Vatican, we noticed that there was no line for St. Peter’s so we walked back in. The difference was striking. Not only was the place relatively empty but the afternoon sun was streaming in making the place far more beautiful.

This is the main dome. It is hard to capture just how huge it is in a picture. Imagine a person floating up there. Well, you’d barely be able to see them. That’s how big it is.

Here we see a couple of Swiss Pikemen guarding the Vatican doors. These are real guards, not just props for the tourists to take photographs of. I think their official title is something like Papal Swiss Guards. If you have played Age of Empires II or III you know a pikeman can easily be taken out with a few crossbowmen.

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Posted on December 27th, 2008 under Other • Tags: italy, pictures. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback