City of God

The Vatican. Where the catholic church has its "seat". Where the pope resides. A small "country" in the middle of Rome. It is independent, but dependent and...well...I don't really know how it all works. But anyways. Millions visits it every year. I was heading for Rome, and had found a hotel right outside the city walls. Fittingly named "The Getsemane".
I arrived at the train station after a quick ride on the superfast train from Bologna. Outside, I found a taxi driver. Really slick driver, I might add. I threw my bags into the trunk and we were off. And he drove like the sterotypical Italian driver. Fast, impatient and swearing at all the idiots in the other cars in the streets. I enjoyed it. He tried talking to me.
"Where ya from?"
"Norway!"
"A beautifuul cantri! I like! I want to go oneh dayeh!"
"Yes it is a beautiful country"
"Aaaaaa....I donte speakeh much English!"
"No problem!"
And that was the conversation. I do not speak Italian. Had planned to many years ago to learn the language, but the attempt stranded after I had learned a few basic phrases and counting to 100. So my bad.
After some hair-raising driving through Rome, we finally arrived at the hotel. I paid the driver, and he screeched on his way. The hotel was enclosed with tall fences and a tall gate. I rang the bell. After a while, a guy came up and opened the gate. I checked in and went up to my room. It was cosy, with views out to the city.
After relaxing for a bit, I decided I wanted to go to see the St Peters church before sundown. It was a short walk to the entrance of the Vatican. And soon, I was there. And walked through the tall columns surrounding the St Peter's Square. I loved the columns, and the huge plaza. But then I saw the church. And...yeah I know this will probably put some people off...but...nothing. I was not impressed. I had seen the church on pictures and videos. But when I stood there, it was just not that impressive. Yeah. It was big. Huge in fact. But I was not in awe. I have seen much more impressive churches several other places. So a bit disappointed, I took a few pictures. Walked around the area to see if it looked better from another angle. But no.
I then saw some people entering the church, and I realized it was open. Since there were practically nobody at the square, I could go through security in a blink and soon I was at the church entrance. I walked inside.
My jaw dropped. And dropped. And...yeah you get the picture. WOW! Now THAT was something to write home about! The sculptures, the paintings in the ceiling and the walls. The arches, the size. The monumental size. And as if that wasn't enough, there was mass going on (this being Sunday and all), and a choir sang beautifully and demonstrated in an almost angelic way the acoustics of the place. And to top it all, the low sun shone a beam of light into the room. It was the closest thing you can have to a religious experience from a building.
I don't know how much time I spent there, but I didn't want to leave. The beauty, the light, and the beautiful choir music made it one of the best experiences of the whole trip. Truly magnificent! My images lends absolutely no credit to the sheer beauty and awesomeness of the place. I sent snaps and messages to friends and family so they could share this with me.

The wall surrounding the Vatican

The Vatican Pontifical Swiss Guards. They may look like just for show, but they do have military training.

Mmmm. Sorry. Not impressed. I mean. Nice. But nothing more.

I mean, WOW!

The morning after, I went back to catch the morning light.

The couple of days later, I had tickets lined up for the Vatican museum. The ticket had a time for me to show up. Just to be on the safe side, I came early just to check out where I was supposed to enter. And when I arrived, there were nobody standing in line, so I decided to just go inside. I went to the ticket boot and showed the printout I had. The guy standing behind the counter didn't even look at the paper before giving me the ticket. I thanked him and got a grunt as a reply before he continued to check his phone. There were few people at the moment in the museum, so I used the opportunity to just enjoy the museum without the big crowds I had seen the previous days. At the time I was supposed to have entered, the museum was packed with people.
Let me just take the opportunity to say up front : If you are ever in Rome, check out the museum. It is packet to the rafters with beautiful and interesting objects and works of art. I was like a kid in a candystore. I wish I could have taken a zillion images. And I wish I had the place to myself. So I could study every object in detail. But with the sheer amount of things, I was only able to stop a few places to look more closely at a small fraction of the items on display. My favorite was the map room. Full of old map globes and old maps. Showing the world as it was depicted using the maping methods of the days.
Some places the room in itself was the object. With beautiful paintings on the walls and the roofs. I think you could spend two days here and not be able to appreciate half of the objects.
Here I have added just a small sample of the pictures I took. I think I swapped batteries twice during the walk.