Vatican City

   Over the past two days I had the great pleasure of visiting the Vatican City in essentially a two part series. The first day we arrived in Saint Peter’s Square with the intent to sketch however, we were pleasantly inhibited from doing so because the Pope was going to be giving an address to the public. It was very exciting to actually see the new Pope as he went around the masses of umbrellas and flashing cameras to bless and kiss small children.  The picture below shows the Pope blessing a small child from the crowd. 

   Later that afternoon we toured the Vatican Museums. My favorite part of the afternoon was actually seeing Raphael’s fresco ‘The School of Athens’. It was truly remarkable to see such a famous fresco in person and knowing that Raphael had once stood in the space we were in. And of course seeing the Sistine Chapel was fantastic. I still can’t get over how Michelangelo was able to paint the ceiling.

   During part two of our visit to the Vatican City we finally went into St. Peter’s Basilica. Entering the interior of the basilica was truly humbling. The scale of everything was exceptionally vast making the experience overwhelming. My favorite feature within the space was Bernini’s design of the baldachin. The design and craft of the piece was gorgeous. But what made me enjoy it the most was how it provided a physical scale that could be used to truly understand and appreciation how large to the rest of the interior was. We also got to walk up to the top of the dome where we were given the best view of the city. The images below are from the interior of St. Peter’s and from the top of the dome.

   The past two days I spent in the Vatican City were amazing. To finally see such a well known space and the craftsmanship of some of the most famous artists and designers in history was incredible.