Vacation Trip to Italy April 2007 -Vatican City

Next stop was Vatican City which is the smallest sovereign country in the world. Our coach has to cross the Tiber river to the west bank in order to reach the Vatican.
Vatican City, officially State of the Vatican City is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome. At approximately 44 hectares (108.7 acres), it is the smallest independent nation in the world.
It was created in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756 to 1870). Vatican City can be said to be the governmental capital of the Catholic Church.
The territory of Vatican City is part of the Mons Vaticanus, and of the adjacent former Vatican Fields where St. Peter's Basilica, the Apostolic Palace, the Sistine Chapel, and museums were built, along with various other buildings on the west bank of the Tiber river.
In 326, the first church, the Constantinian basilica, was built over the site that Catholic apologists as well as noted Italian archaeologists argue was the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in a common cemetery on the spot.
The papacy is a non-hereditary, elective monarchy, chosen by the College of Cardinals. He is the only absolute monarch in Europe.
The pope is elected for a life term in conclave by cardinals under the age of 80.
The current Pope is His Holiness Benedict XVI, born Joseph Alois Ratzinger in Bavaria, Germany.

The moment we entered the boundary of the Vatican City, we can see a large queue of at least 3 blocks long all waiting to enter the Vatican Museums, a treasure house of the Catholic faith with vast collections of ancient and Renaissance art. We joined the queue with a local guide who provided us with hand phones fixed at a certain frequency so that we can listen to his commentary. As the Vatican Museums which leads to the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica are places of worship, we were supposed to keep quiet and wear clothes appropriate to the location( ie no miniskirts,shorts,low cut blouses etc).