We started early on Monday morning so we could get in as much site seeing as possible, and what a day it was. We took the bus to the subway and arrived, after a short walk, to the wall around Vatican City. Here Joey is standing right across the street from it.
Along the wall, as we were trying to find how to get in, we came across this exit from the Vatican Museum. Just a little way to our right, just out of the picture, was an entrance to the museum but it cost. We asked someone how to get in and were told to follow the wall and we would come to it.
This is looking back at the pillars from the square.
In the middle of the square they were setting up some kind of a display by this Christmas tree.
Looking at St. Peter's Basilicas from the square.
A closer look at the wall beside the Basilicas rich in sculptures.
Same wall including a sculpture on the square.
These are on the roof over the center of the Basilicas.
This is the beautiful roof of the portico leading into the Basilicas.
Inside and in the main hall of the Basilicas.
One of the awesome domes in the roof of the Basilicas.
Another of many.
Along the sides of the main hall of the Basilicas are side chapels or grottos. This one is obscured by this curtain behind which was being constructed an elaborate nativity scene. There is a fence around the area giving room for the workmen to do their jobs.
As we were watching the removal of this statue to add to the nativity, the workmen in the light colored sweater noticed Joey and Bailey, who were with Viv and me, and waved to them. Although there were a lot of people watching, he singled out these two, came over to where we were standing looking over the protective fence, and moved back the fence and invited us in.
He pulled back the curtain and showed us the scene they were building. It was much more elaborate than photos can do justice to.
While we were looking, he brought over one of the lambs and had each of the girls in turn, hold it while we took pictures of them. The surrounding people looked pleased but a little jealous.
All over the Vatican there are these guards. Here in St. Peter's Square they are dressed in these unique costumes. I struck up a conversation with this one. I asked a lot of questions of him. I have read books that referred to them, and I was curious. Among the things I learned was that they were all from Switzerland, they have to have served in the Swiss Military, they had to be within a certain range of height and weight, and they had to be Catholic. Joey and I had a long conversion with him. He was very kind and he spoke Italian and German as well as English.
After leaving the Vatican we stopped at one of the little shops in the narrow Rome streets and had an Italian Ice.
After we took the subway to this bus stop it was dark and we had to wait a while for our bus back to our home in Rome.
That's a beautiful nativity scene. I think it's so neat you got to go inside and get pictures of the girls with the lamb.
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