OUR TRIP TO ITALY APRIL 2007 - ST PETER"S BASILICA

The End of the Sistine Chapel was in a large room with frescos of The New Testament on one wall and The Old Testament on the opposite wall.
It is here that that the cardinals will pray to choose the next Pope. From here we leave the beautiful Sistine Chapel with the wonderful art of Michaelangelo( Remember the book and Movie "The Agony and the Ectacsy" which deals with the emotional state of Michaelangelo as he is torn between helping his Pope and his desire to return to his home in Florence.
We then entered the St Peter's Basilica where most of the Popes including St Peter were buried and where the Pope celebrates Mass.
The Basilica of Saint Petrus, officially known in Italian as the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and commonly called Saint Peter's Basilica, is one of four major basilicas of Rome (St. John Lateran, St. Peter's, Santa Maria Maggiore and St. Paul outside the Walls).
It is the most prominent building inside the Vatican City. Its dome is also a dominant feature of the Roman skyline. Saint Peter's is also incidentally the patriarchal basilica of Constantinople whereas the Lateran Basilica is the patriarchal basilica of Rome.
Possibly the largest church building in Christianity[2], it covers an area of 5.7 acres (2.3 ha) and has a capacity of over 60,000 people. One of the holiest sites of Christendom in the Catholic tradition, it is traditionally the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, first Bishop of Antioch, and later first Bishop of Rome. Although the New Testament does not mention Peter's presence or martyrdom in Rome, ancient tradition holds that his tomb is below the baldachin and altar; for this reason, many Popes, starting with the first ones, have been buried there.
Construction on the current basilica, over the old Constantinian basilica, began on April 18, 1506 and was completed in 1626[3].
Although the Vatican basilica is not the Pope's official ecclesiastical seat (Saint John Lateran), it is most certainly his principal church, as most Papal ceremonies take place at St. Peter's due to its size, proximity to the Papal residence, and location within the Vatican City walls. The basilica also holds a relic of the Cathedra Petri, the episcopal throne of the basilica's namesake when he led the Roman church, but which is no longer used as the Papal cathedra. It is believed that a piece of this cathedra, or chair, is contained within the altarpiece, designed by Bernini.

The light coming down from the roof of the Basilica lights up the whole church. It was a masterpiece of architecture with lower and upper floor. The lower floor was where the Pope celebrates Mass with his cardinals and bishops while the upper floor was where the Pope celebrate Mass with the congregation.

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).