Vatican Museum & Tour of St. Peter’s Basilica

Today was another hot one (I have a feeling it’s going to be the whole trip). We got up early to go visit the Vatican Museum(s) which ends with the Sistine Chapel. After our three hour tour we reconvened to walk around to the entrance of the St. Peter’s Basilica for a guided tour through the Church. Along the way our people were dropping like flies. Some took a cab back to the hotel, some waited at coffee shops, some left to walk. After the Basilica tour everyone was on their own to wander, go for lunch, site see and/or make their way back to the hotel. Everyone was on their own for dinner. The Vatican Museums and the Basilica are filled with priceless masterpieces of art, but you don’t have to go there to see masterpieces, even by those artists, there are public pieces to enjoy in piazzas, in little local churches, etc. The Basilica itself (which is free to enter) is a masterpiece. It’s hard to fathom its immensity because of its scale. It is so enormous but feels so proportionate that it seems “normal.” What I found most interesting was the very Roman Catholic interpretations of everything given by the guides and my Protestant reactions. Everything from Peter being the first Pope to the understanding of the Office of the Keys. It was a very interesting day, but information overload with a cursory look. One could spend weeks in there.