Once we reached Vatican City, we were approached by several people who were selling tours of the Vatican museums, St Peter's Basilica and Sistine Chapel. They claimed that buying their tours enable us to skip the line, otherwise, we'll need to join the long queues. Anyway, we didn't buy from them as we didn't plan to go into the chapel and the museum at Vatican. Many people said that it's a must to visit the Vatican museum and the church if we're at Vatican but we're not museum people and we had seen too many churches in Europe so we decided to give that a miss.
Even though we didn't go into the museum and the church, being at St Peter's Square already awed us. It's really magnificent with the world's biggest catholic church sitting in front of it, and the architecture at the sides of the square stands numerous different angels at the top. We were told that everything built within the St Peter's Square were symmetrical and have some meaning behind it. I think you'll be able to understand more about the architecture if you've watched the movie or the read the book "Angels and Demon". We were also told that every Sunday during noon time, the square will be filled with Catholics and the Pope will speak.
St Peter's Square
This was seen on the floor around the obelisk. It accurately indicates the direction. There's one of such tile at each direction: west, north-west, north etc. Not sure what does the the man blowing wind means though but I think there's some meaning behind it.
The guards..
Top view of St Peter's Square and the road in front of it. Picture from wikipedia..
So we walked along the streets leading to Castel Sant'Angelo and the Angels Bridge. There're some shops and eateries along the streets, so the walk was not so boring.
Castel Sant'Angelo and Angels Bridge..
There's an entrance fee to the castle. I think it's 11 Euros if my memory didn't fail me. We thought it was expensive and gave that a miss..
Angels bridge.. Statues of different angels on it..
'Ponte' is 'bridge' in Italian..
Then after that, we're back in Rome. Check out my post on Rome!
Even though we didn't go into the museum and the church, being at St Peter's Square already awed us. It's really magnificent with the world's biggest catholic church sitting in front of it, and the architecture at the sides of the square stands numerous different angels at the top. We were told that everything built within the St Peter's Square were symmetrical and have some meaning behind it. I think you'll be able to understand more about the architecture if you've watched the movie or the read the book "Angels and Demon". We were also told that every Sunday during noon time, the square will be filled with Catholics and the Pope will speak.
St Peter's Square
This was seen on the floor around the obelisk. It accurately indicates the direction. There's one of such tile at each direction: west, north-west, north etc. Not sure what does the the man blowing wind means though but I think there's some meaning behind it.
The guards..
Top view of St Peter's Square and the road in front of it. Picture from wikipedia..
So we walked along the streets leading to Castel Sant'Angelo and the Angels Bridge. There're some shops and eateries along the streets, so the walk was not so boring.
Castel Sant'Angelo and Angels Bridge..
There's an entrance fee to the castle. I think it's 11 Euros if my memory didn't fail me. We thought it was expensive and gave that a miss..
Angels bridge.. Statues of different angels on it..
'Ponte' is 'bridge' in Italian..
Then after that, we're back in Rome. Check out my post on Rome!
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