Vatican City & St. Peter's-Katie almost doesn't make it!

Our final morning in Rome we woke up early to be the first people into the Pantheon, which was right around the corner from where we stayed.  Usually it had a long line which we were able to avoid!

Here is the famous dome and the hole in the roof, there was water on the floor from the rain in the night!

Tomb of Queen Margherita whom the pizza that my kids adore is named after!

This is the tomb of Victor Emmanuel II the story, the guy to right is an  Honor Guard to the Royal Tombs of the Pantheon, when you read the New York Times article it makes me think we were lucky to find a guard there!

Honor Guard to the Tombs of the Pantheon-New York Times  The guard had a podium in front of him where you could sign your name to show support for the former royal families of Italy.

Kelly by the column out front, look at the size of it!

A hotel right across from it, look at the beautiful dome replica on the front entrance!

We checked out and headed for the Vatican but had to go by bus to drop off our bags until later in the day.  Katie had not been complaining that her tummy didn't feel right, and so a bus ride on a crowded bus proved to be too much.  We got off a stop early and she fainted, luckily Greg caught her!  She was right outside of a shop and the kind shopkeeper ran and got her some packets of sugar to eat.  He also offered for her to come lay in his fancy shop but we were afraid she might get sick in there so we stayed on a bench.   After a bit she was ready to move and we got heading to the Vatican where we had a timed entrance ticket for all of us waiting.

Luckily once we got in we found a courtyard with benches where Katie could rest while the rest of us fought our way through the tour groups to explore the massive museum.

 I can't do all of the priceless artifacts justice, so I won't even try, I hardly took any pictures I was so busy trying to see it all!  When you go through museums with Charlie its kind of like walking with a ticking time bomb in your pocket..you know its going to go at some point so you have to hurry and hope you make it to the end before it goes off!

We detoured to see the mummies...then got yelled at by the guards for not following the floor plan!

 We finally made it to the Sistine Chapel, we weren't sure Charlie could do it! Katie figured out how to catch up to us and we were all able to stand and admire it together.

It was fun to hear about where Michelangelo put himself in the drawing of judgement day. 

These gorgeous wardrobes lined the hallways for quite awhile, they all had different paintings on the fronts. I have no idea what was stored in them or how old they were but I liked looking at them. 

Lion the witch & the wardrobe?

They had a whole soccer display of all the Pope's jerseys-very cool!

They also had his space suit!

This is how you head toward the museum exit..

Greg took this from the top!

 We walked around the block and then entered St. Peter's Square and the church.  It was really neat to see a place that you have seen on tv so many times before!

Great to see the real Pieta after seeing some other ones at previous stops!

They are standing in front of the holy door that only is opened every 25 years!  It was last opened in 2000.

On one side is the tomb of Pope John Paul II. I was touched to see how many people were praying there.

You could go up to the Swiss Guards and ask for a ticket for the Pope's Wednesday Mass, we were leaving that night but it would have been neat to see.  Charlie would't pose for a picture with the guards for me-the stinker!

Katie has almost survived the longest & worst day to be sick!

Walking back outside the walls we looked into an open window and could see the Swiss guard uniforms all lined up.

This was one of the driving gates into Vatican City.

Katie has finally made it and we are on the train towards a beach town called Cecina.  No sights to see other than the beach!

The kids LOVED the train travel, nothing to do but listen to music, watch some shows and see the beautiful countryside and snack.  Greg is delighted not to be driving and I am happy that there is no backseat for fighting!