One Day in Vatican City (PART ONE): Vatican Gardens + Necropolis Via Triumphalis + Vatican Museums

Our third day in Italy was spent touring the Vatican, the smallest city-state in the world, and taking wayyy too many photographs. My favorite highlight had to be the the Sistine Chapel. No surprise. It also felt like a pilgrimage many years in the making--I went to Catholic grade school for 9 or so years. I can't wait to share everything we did on this very long day.

We started our morning with a guided tour that we booked through Trip Advisor. The process was super easy and we were able to tour the Vatican Gardens and the Necropolis Via Trumphalis. We started the tour in the morning in the gardens because the abdicated Pope Benedict XVI likes to walk in the gardens in the afternoon so the guards close them down. He currently resides in the Vatican in the brick building in the middle top photo below.

We even got to see the Vatican's radio station/tower. Did you know the radio was set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi and is now offered in 47 languages. We also walked through a neat pathway that was flanked on either side with various plants referenced in the Bible, like cyprus.

After the Vatican Gardens we continued on to the Necropolis of the Via Trumphalis, which is an an ancient Roman graveyard discovered when the Vatican begin digging to build a "car park" (aka parking lot). The graveyard was supposedly on a hill that was covered through a series of landslides which allowed it to be well preserved for all those years. It isn't open to the public but if you book a guided tour like ours you will get to walk through it. Fair warning...it is HOT down there!

You could see all the frescoes, pottery, and even some bones while walking around the necropolis. 

After the necropolis we ended the tour and were able to wander the Vatican Museums at our own pace. The Vatican Museums are extensive and we could have spent so much more time there but we kept to our Rick Steves audio guide app and we were able to hit the highlights in about two hours. We started at the aptly named PCC, or Pine Cone Courtyard.

While wandering the Vatican Museums we saw the famous Laocoon and His Sons (left photo below), which is believed to be the statute praised by the main Roman writer on art, Pliny the Elder. Remember this name, you'll see it again in a couple days. We also saw a tapestry which was really neat because Jesus' eyes follow you as you walk by. It was beautiful but sort of eerie. The last photo I think is just the crest of The Vatican.

We also walked through an area known as the Gallery of Maps. My personal favorite was the one of Venice at the end of the hallway.

We also saw the absolutely stunning The School of Athens fresco painted by Raphael:

After that we were shepherded by the crowed into the Sistine Chapel. Oh my god you guys. It was so surreal to see the Sistine Chapel in person. It looks so unassuming from the outside but the inside is absolutely breathtaking. This post is getting long so I think I'm going to leave the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, and St. Peter's Dome/Square for another day. I can't wait to share!