"This is the Goddess of the Mini-Skirt" - Vatican City

A visit to Italy wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Vatican City, situated on the Vatican Hill in west-central Rome. It is an urban area and the population of the place is approximately 932. The languages spoken by the people of Vatican City are Latin, Italian, French and English, even though the current Pope nicknamed Papa Benedicto is originally from Germany. It is hard to fathom that Vatican City is the smallest sovereign state in the world at 110 acres because it houses the Pope who is the head of the Catholic Church, the most practiced religion in the world. The Pope has many other titles and duties. He is the bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, patriarch of the West, and the sovereign of Vatican City. The pope also creates cardinals, names saints and intervenes in disputes between the Vatican and local bishops. If you couldn’t tell by now, Pope Benedict XVI is kind of a big deal with lots of responsibilities. This is why I was so ecstatic to see the Pope pass me by in his Mercedes Macbeth and army of police while I was grabbing some Southern-Italian style pizza across from The Apostolic Palace where the Pope resides. I literally had to rub my eyes and blink twice just to make sure this was real life.

After I overcame my initial shock of seeing the Pope, I began to search for a representative of a travel agency offering tours inside the Vatican. Before walking a block, a nice yet quiet Italian man sold me on his agency that offered a student discount of 5 Euros. He escorted me to the headquarters of the travel agency around the city wall of the Vatican that was constructed to protect the Pope from any outside attacks. I booked a three hour tour for 40 Euros.

The tour was spoken in English and Spanish by probably the most stereotypical Italian man. He talked with his hands and emphasized every syllable of every word. Sometimes he would just at an ‘a’ at the end of words. Then there was his sense of humor that reminded me of my grandfather’s humor. For example, before we started to walk towards the Vatican, there was a picture of Vatican City and Rome outside the agency. On the map was a Pagan church that was converted into a Catholic Church. My tour guide said anyone can convert a Pagan church into a Catholic one by adding a cross to the building. For another example of his sense of humor, we were looking at a picture of the Last Supper inside the courtyard of the Vatican and our tour guide ask, “What was the last thing Jesus said at the Last Supper?” So I volunteer my input and say, “this is the body of Christ, the Blood of Christ…” and then he cuts me off and makes me feel like I am a bad Catholic and says, “look at all the people at the table, Jesus asked for separate checks.” Also, when I told him my family descended from Rome and Naples, he paused for a second, shook his head in agreement and said “sounds like a good cocktail”. Then, he was always trying to hook me up with one of the Australian guys on our tour. This man was a character.

Looking back on the tour, I am not sure if I even learned anything about the Vatican except St. Peter’s Basilica is the tallest dome in the world at 452 feet. Honestly, I was satisfied with his jokes because the Vatican is full of too much history for me to understand without watching a few documentaries on the History Channel or something rather. I really went to see the spectacular Sistine Chapel which was painted by the famous sculptor (not painter) Michelangelo. The guards in the Sistine Chapel are very strict and do not allow any pictures to be taken or noise. However, I was able to sneak in a picture because my tour guide demanded that everyone took one knowing it would be breaking a rule. Of course the guards saw some of us take the pictures and ran over to our group and forced everyone who they saw snap a picture delete it. Then, no surprise, my tour guide starts yelling at the guards in Italian that he told us not to take a picture and we all didn’t listen. Once the guards left, he whispered in my ear that these guards were new and normally they don’t care.

All in all, I wished I spent more time in Rome. The Vatican at least takes a half day and there are so many other museums that I wanted to see. My tour guide referred to the Vatican as a plague because it is all anyone visits when they come to Rome, while the city is full of hidden gems.

For the history on St. Peter's Basilica, check out this link: http://www.aviewoncities.com/rome/sanpietro.htm For more information on the tour I took, check out this link: http://www.vaticantour.com/ For an article on Pope Benedict XVI election, check out this link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7523254/ Finally, here is a map of Vatican City: