Rome, Italy: The Vatican

Once upon a time, Matt and I went on a month-long honeymoon in Europe. And once upon a time, I started blogging about it. And then I started blogging about it again. And then again. It turns out, blogging about month-long vacations while still keeping up with your normal life is a nearly impossible task. Which is too bad, because  1) the only thing that forces me to even go through said pictures is blogging about them and 2) it would be nice to have the posts in the archive for reference/if my computer bites the dust.

I had all but given up on ever finishing my blog posts about our European honeymoon, when my cousin Angie introduced me to the beautiful practice of backdating posts. So, for the next few days, I'm going to finish blogging about Italy and then will blog about Paris in the near future... and then I will backdate the posts to, oh, nearly three years ago where they belong. Feel free to insert an eyeroll here. But then feast your eyes upon Italian awesomeness for the next few days. If only I'd had a DSLR back then...

So. The Vatican. We, the Mormons, ended up in line next to a Catholic couple who had recently visited Temple Square in Salt Lake, which is sort of like the Mormon version of the Vatican. The four of us thought that was pretty cool, and had a really nice conversation about the things we loved about each others' religion. Matt and I were a bit late for our appointment due to the morning's tragic events, but luckily they still let us in and we were able to enjoy a self-guided tour of the museum. The art and history were incredible! We especially appreciated the little fig leaves you-know-where. And the ceilings! They were my favorite part. So ornate.

The Sistine Chapel took our breath away. Even for two non-art-enthusiasts like us, the thought of Michaelangelo painting such beautiful, meaningful scenes so many hundreds of years ago was amazing. When we walked in, everyone was taking pictures so we snapped a few as well. Then someone started yelling at everyone in Italian to stop taking pictures -- apparently they're allowed everywhere at the Vatican but the Sistine Chapel. On our way out, we saw a "no camera" sign, but it had previously been covered by dozens of tourists. Oops.

Lastly, we visited St. Peter's Basilica, which is so grand, for lack of a better word. It is large and open and opulent and, wow. My toe was unfortunately still bleeding rather profusely so we didn't get to spend much time there or go up the dome, but maybe someday... right?