St Peter's Basilica, with its beautiful dome visible throughout the city of Rome, is one of the most exquisite architectures, engineering works, and artistry of the Renaissance. It is the largest church in the world. I love Renaissance art, and there is no better place, outside of Florence, to see Renaissance masterpieces than Vatican City.
During my visit, I was fortunate to meet with Father Thang, a Vietnamese priest, studying at the Vatican. He offered to show me around the Basilica and took me down to the Vatican grottoes, which often requires booking a tour. The Vatican Grottoes is an underground graveyard below St. Peter's Basilica. Here lay tombs of many popes, including what believed as the remains of St Peter, the first pope.
On May 1st, 2011, two weeks before my visit, Pope John Paul II beatification ceremony was held here at the Basilica. With his beatification ceremony, the Vatican moved his tomb from Vatican Grottoes to a chapel in the Basilica. When visiting the Grottoes, I could see his previous burial site here.
Michelangelo's Pietà
Vatican Museum
By the time I am out of St. Peter's Basilica, there was a line wrapping around the block of tourists waiting to enter. I headed over to the Vatican Museum. The tourists' line is always long at the Vatican Museum unless you've booked your tickets in advance.
There are two things that I want to see at the Vatican Museum - Raphael's The School of Athens and Michelangelo's frescos in the Sistine Chapel.
Raphael's fresco The School of Athens is the symbol of the Renaissance - the intersection of art, philosophy, and science.
The frescos at the Sistine Chapel's ceiling is the masterpiece of Michelangelo. This project, along with David and the dome of St. Peter's, showed us how complete he was as an artist. It took Michelangelo four years to finish the project, with hours spending on planning the project itself. While many believed that he painted the ceiling lying on his back, he built his scaffolding to paint the frescos with high precision. I wish that I've spent more time here to observe this incredible artwork, but the crowd kept bumping into me. They did not allow photography here, so I could not capture any photo. However, no picture can do justice to the level of details of this Michelangelo's masterpiece.
The Sunday Angelus
Vatican City at night
