Only a 15 minute walk from my apartment, the Citta del Vaticano waited a while for me to fully explore. The sky was brilliant that day at St. Peter’s, and, with this being one of my first days in Rome, I was in awe at the venerable ring of statues looking down at me. Walking out from under the giant columns, and looking down at the Roman cobblestone, I couldn’t have felt more out-of-place in such an important place.
The place is historic, no doubt, but also represents some of the worst and best of humanity – a paradox of a place throughout the ages. Impressive. Opulent. Kind. Corrupt. Powerful.
The Vatican Museums were incredibly overwhelming. I wandered around them for hours. This particular wing I found really neat, mostly because it was very empty and had very unique lighting. I found the alcoves containing the statues to be dramatic and the whole atmosphere was exactly what I would expect of a museum housing some of the most important and ancient artifacts in the world.
