vaticano

we went to the vatican yesterday. awesome as always. my camera died so i had to steal pictures from heather. hopefully ill be able to get some good ones of my own this weekend!

st. peters

vatican museum

sweeeeet

this is really interesting because there's a statue in the center of this painting

probably the most valuable painting in the vatican museum

by caravaggio

st. peter being lowered from the cross

i want to go here!

war eagle!

awesome

alligator!

aww dogs!

sarcophagus

really cool painting. love it

st. peter's square

mary and jesus. faaamous. inside st. peters

st. jerome

touching st. peters foot

people come to just touch this statues foot because it is said that it holds the key to heaven.

p.rez

st. peter's tomb

so i am learning so much my second time through the vatican/st. peters. the biggest example of this is the picture below. it is an altar to the chigi pope (yaaay family!)! but it is so famous because it is the only time that you have ever seen a pope depicted on his knees. pretty interesting. love the chigis.

i just realized that i keep saying yay family and you might not get it if you don't follow bouncing balls very well... i live in the chigi palace in ariccia, home to the chigi family for forever (it was sold to ariccia in 1989). they had a pope in their family, i believe his name was alexander chigi. i'll double check that for you... anyways, this is his altar. and it's GIANT, probably one of the biggest ones inside st. peters.

sorry about tommys head in the way

tomorrow we're going to assisi and deruta. assisi is obviously home to st. francis of assisi, who is the patron saint of ITALY. yup, the whole thing. and deruta is a town also within umbria that is known for it's maiolica, which is ceramic pottery. should be good!