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The City State of the Vatican is the smallest independent sovereign country in the world, though in a certain sense it is also the biggest, for it is indeed everywhere. The smallest State in the world houses the biggest art collection in the world, and the biggest church in the world, St. Peter's Basilica, an amazing creation of Renaissance and Baroque architecture. The Basilica soars up 140 meters (420 ft) with its dome into the heavenly skies, and goes deep down into the earth, to the tomb of St. Peter, over which it was built.

It is said that those who attempted to see everything in the Vatican, would need to stay at least half a year. Most of us will visit Vatican for much less time, and surely we will see a great number of world renowned masterpieces and historical landmarks. At St. Peter's we will view Bernini's Colonnade; the Altar of Glory; magnificent mosaics; the most ancient bronze statue of St. Peter; the Holy Door; the Canopy which Bernini made with the bronze from the Pantheon; the Confession of St. Peter where his relics are kept; the greatest of Michelangelo's sculptures, the famous Pietà, the only work he ever signed.

In the Papal Palaces that house the Vatican Museums, the biggest in the world, we will see paintings by Giotto, Beato Angelico, Raffaello, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, and then the collection of classic Greek and Roman art that includes such artifacts of world-wide fame as the Apollo del Belvedere and Laocoonte, and the tapestries designed by Raffaello, the maps drawn by a cartographer of the 16th century that are so precise, they could be used even today. We shall walk through the apartments of the Popes, and the great Stanze di Raffaello (rooms in the Papal apartments painted by Raffaello). The journey through time and art will culminate with one of the world's wonders - the Sistine Chapel - the "Holy of Holies" of the Popes, covered with frescoes painted by the greatest artists of the 15th century, and completed with frescoes by perhaps the greatest of all artists, Michelangelo. After visiting the Sistine Chapel, Goethe wrote that only those who see it, can understand what one man alone is capable of doing.

The Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums originated as a group of sculptures collected by Pope Julius II (1503-1513) and placed in what today is the "Cortile Ottagono" within the museum complex. The popes were among the first sovereigns who opened the art collections of their palaces to the public thus promoting knowledge of art history and culture. As seen today, the Vatican Museums are a complex of different pontifical museums and galleries that began under the patronage of the popes Clement XIV (1769-1774) and Pius VI (1775-1799). In fact, the Pio-Clementine Museum was named after these two popes, who set up this first major curatorial section. Later, Pius VII (1800-1823) considerably expanded the collections of Classical Antiquities, to which he added the Chiaromonti Museum and the "Braccio Nuovo" gallery. He also enriched the Epigraphic Collection, which was conserved in the Lapidary Gallery.

Sistine Chapel

Deservedly one of the most famous places in the world, the Sistine Chapel is the site where the conclave for the election of the popes and other solemn pontifical ceremonies are held. Built to the design of Baccio Pontelli by Giovannino de Dolci between 1475 and 1481, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who commissioned it. It is a large rectangle with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and it is divided into two unequal parts by a marble screen. The screen and the transenna were built by Mino da Fiesole and other artists. The frescoes on the long walls illustrate parallel events in the Lives of Moses and Christ and constitute a complex of extraordinary interest executed between 1481 and 1483 by Perugino, Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli and Domenico Ghirlandaio, with their respective groups of assistants, who included Pinturicchio, Piero di Cosimo and others; later Luca Signorelli also joined the group. The barrel-vaulted ceiling is entirely covered by the famous frescoes which Michelangelo painted between 1508 and 1512 for Julius II. The original design was only to have represented the Apostles, but was modified at the artist's insistence to encompass an enormously complex iconographic theme which may be synthesized as the representation of mankind waiting for the coming of the Messiah. More than twenty years later, Michelangelo was summoned back by Paul III (1534-49) to paint the Last Judgement on the wall behind the altar. He worked on it from 1536 to 1541.

The Vatican Observatory

The Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world, has its headquarters at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, outside Rome. Its dependent research center, the Vatican Observatory Research Group, is hosted by Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. The Vatican Observatory Research Group operates the 1.8m Alice P. Lennon Telescope with its Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility, known together as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) in southeastern Arizona.

Piazza San Pietro

Also known as: Saint Peter's Square, Built: 1656-1667 , Designed by: Gian Lorenzo Bernini

This is the large public square outside Saint Peter's Basilica, which is considered the greatest church on Earth. The square is actually round, with the perimeter marked by two huge colonnades. The roofs of these colonnades are supported by four rows of Doric columns 60-feet tall. The ellipse symbolizes Saint Peter's, the mother church of Christianity, embracing the world. At the center of the square is an Egyptian obelisk brought to Rome by Caligula in 38 from the town of Heliopolis, on the Nile Delta. It was part of Nero's Circus where Saint Peter was crucified, and where construction on Saint Peter's began in 324. The obelisk was moved to its present location by Pope Sixtus V. While being positioned it almost fell over. A warning cry from a sailor saved the 85-foot-tall artifact from toppling and shattering into millions of pieces. To this day the palms for Palm Sunday are brought to the Vatican from the sailor's home town of Bordighera to reward his attention. At the top is a "Chigi Star" in honor of Pope Alexander VII, a member of the Chigi family who oversaw the building of the piazza. The obelisk is flanked by two fountains, and halfway between the fountains and the obelisk are stone circles in the ground. If you stand on one of the circles, you can see an optical illusion -- the four rows of 60-foot tall pillars forming the colonnade disappear behind each other and look like a single row. The piazza has to be large to accommodate the throngs that show up at noon on Sundays and several other times each week to hear the Pope say mass and to receive his blessing. As it is now, the square can handle about 300,000 people but has been known to pack in more. The Pope delivers his blessing from a library window overlooking the square. You can approach the square, Saint Peter's, and the Vatican as a whole by coming up the Via della Conciliazione. Two rows of houses were demolished by Mussolini in 1936 to build this boulevard from Piazza San Pietro across the Tiber River to the center of Rome. This was Mussolini's symbolic way of honoring the "conciliation" between the Vatican and the Italian government. The Vatican is an independent country since 1929 with its own army (supplied by Switzerland), airport (actually a helipad), train station, radio station, currency and postal service. The Vatican money is legal everywhere in Italy, and the Vatican postal system is more reliable than the Italian postal system, so if you're mailing something back home, bring it by Saint Peter's Square.

Basilica di San Pietro

Also known as: Saint Peter's Basilica, Built: Original building: about 500ad. Current building 1506-1626, Designed by: Designed by Bramante

This is the one piece of architecture that is universally considered to be the crowning achievement of everything the Renaissance has to offer. To this day, it is the largest church on Earth, and makes that point known by outlining the silhouettes of the world's other great churches on its floor in brass. They all fall inside Saint Peter's walls. Originally, the basilica was much smaller. But then it was discovered that the building was going to collapse. A reconstruction effort was begun in 1452, but was halted because of a lack of money. Then in 1506 Pope Julius II decided to raze the old buildings and put up the greatest church ever. A church that would be the mother church for all of Christianity. His dream was realized 120 years later when Saint Peter's was dedicated. By then the construction project had outlived all of its original architects and builders. Changes in leadership led to changes in design. By the time the project fell into Michaelangelo's hands it was well on its way to being constructed as a huge Latin cross. Michaelangelo changed direction, bringing Saint Peter's back to its original design - a Greek cross. After Michaelangelo's death, the project passed to Giacomo della Porta, who changed direction again and is responsible for the Latin cross we see today.

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