Sistine Chapel

A lady working in the gift shop pointed us toward the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.

We bought tickets to get inside and were surprised at how huge the Vatican Museum is; it seemed to stretch the entire length of the city.

The museum was room after room of tapestries, statues, artifacts, and paintings covering the walls and ceilings.

We kept thinking the Sistine Chapel would be around the next corner and were surprised by more rooms. Seriously, this place seemed like the neverending museum!

It was really neat to see the Sistine Chapel in person, especially the famous portion of the painting located in the center of the ceiling that is of the hand of God reaching out to give touch Adam's hand and give him life.

There were no pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel, as we were constantly reminded by the security guard yelling "No pictures!"  It was pretty dark in there, but I snapped a few pictures on the sly.

 We apparently turned the wrong way as we exited the Sistine Chapel and ended up walking a long way around the huge walls that surround Vatican City. There's no shortcut back through the city, just the main exit and entrance.  At least we can say that we’ve walked most of the way around an entire country!