The Vatican Museum and St Peters Basillica

This morning we celebrated mass in a beautiful chapel inside of St. Mary Major.  After which we took another short tour of downtown Rome.  Where we saw the Pantheon which is a former Pagan chuch that was taken over by the Catholic Church.  In the center of the dome at the roof is a hole that was intentionally left there.  Originally, to allow Romulus to raise up to join the other gods.  When the catholic church took it over they left it there to allow the souls of its people to reach heaven.  We then went to a large market in the center of Rome that contained many different vendors who were selling art. and an enormour fountain that was just breathtaking.  We then moved on to the Vatican Museum, the Cistine Chapel and St Peters Basillica.  I think the thing that struck me the most walking through the museum was just not knowing where to look.  There was so much to see that you couldn't see it all.  One of the halls was lined with carpets that illustrated different scenes throughout the history of Jesus and the church.  There was as much detail in each carpet as there was in each painting. 

We learned an interesting fact about the cistine chapel.  When Michelangelo was painting the Final Judgement the pope and his assistant would come quite often.  Apparently, the assistant did not like how it was turning out and complained quite a bit about it.  Michelangelo was not impressesed with his continous complaints, so if you look in the bottom right corner the man who is in hell that is wrapped up by the serpent was the image of the assistant.

Finally,  as far as I'm concerened the highlight of the trip so far was St. Peter's Basillica.  When you walk in you are just overwhelmed by how massive it is.  I have been in many football stadiums in my life and none of them comes close in sheer size.  It was a breathtaking experience.

There is one picture of Father Bloom included that I thought was great.  I turned around at one point while in the Cistine Chapel and saw father with a look of amazement that you would think would be reserved for people who had never seen it before.