The Vatican City

Having missed my first booking by being late I arrived forty five minutes early for this one! The tour was again with City Wonders with an excellent younger guide Laura (born 1984 she told us). About 20,000 people a day pass through the Vatican museum and St Peters Church as they call it. It was very crowded. You pass through the Raphael Rooms, the Pio Clementine Museum (with its famous classical sculptures), the Sistine chapel (with Michelangelo's ceiling), the Egyptian Museum, the room of the maps (created by the pope in 1503 with maps of the whole of Italy which encompassed the Papal States) etc. Italy actually did not become a state until the1870's and the Papal State did not become recognized by Italy until 1929, when Mussolini was the Prime Minister.   Here are just a few pics to remind me of this amazing place. Laura and other guides use picture books to show what various sites would have looked like then and now.