Vatican City, the size of a golfcourse

On Sunday, I visited the smallest country in the world, Vatican City. According to the tour guide, 900 people live there with 2,000 commuting every day for work. A question I posed to my uncle was; if you are born in Vatican City, what is your nationality? Are you officially Italian or what do you call yourself, A Vaticaner? Vaticanian? I truly have no idea and what I find in google states there is none. Lame. Vatican City is also called the "Holy See" which is a little too big-brotherish for me but I guess when you're a country with over 1 billion people hanging on your every word you can call yourself whatever you want. 

Since my trip was so short we packed a TON in 2 days! On Sunday I had a flight back to Spain at 6:20pm so bright and early, we headed to the Vatican to take a tour with a great guide we had met the day before. I have about 100 places I consider must sees in my life but if I had to narrow it down to 5, one is absolutely Vatican City! Again, my family was INCREDIBLE to allow me to come with them on this trip and include me with them on the tour. What an amazing place!! I read the books by Dan Brown and I really wish I would have reread them before going because you walk into the square and you cannot help but gape in awe. You are standing in one of the most important areas in the world for Catholics and regardless if you are one or not, it’s a spectacular sight. It certainly didn’t disappoint and I loved thinking of all the historical moments that occurred in the exact same place I was standing.

 Our tough guide explained how it would take 8 ½ days to see everything in the museum/church if you spent only a minute on each piece of art so he was great at pointing out the really important stuff. In my opinion, having a guide can really enhance a trip and I think the people who explain art in museums should be given their own statue. I love going to museums but sooo much more when I have someone with a little more knowledge than me of the art world. (That basically means any knowledge...at all.) For example, I have been to the world famous Prado Museum twice in Madrid and right when you step in it’s like an automatic intelligence boost. I swear you just FEEL intellectual. The first time, 

 went with my roommate who doesn't speak English. He did his very best to explain to me what things meant but at that point I was at the REALLY basic level of Spanish and what I heard was a whole lot of words followed by "entiendes?" asking me if I understood. So basically, I was left to decipher the paintings for myself. For anyone interested in my knowledge of the fine arts I will sum it up for you. These are the key phrases that if asked, I could confidently state;

That is a brilliant blue. Blue is my favorite color.

He looks real. You can see all his muscles!

This is a really unique piece (code for I don’t get it.)

I bet there are a lot of layers of paint on that one.

I love this! The shadow is doing something really cool.

(someone states something…) “yeah, I agree”

Now, round 2 I went with my friend Lizzie who was an art student from the U.S and I cannot BELIEVE how the same exact artwork looked so different. I learned the meaning of hand placement, light, types and styles from different eras as well as how politcal art can be. Art is amazing when you are with someone who A. you understand and B. doesn’t limit her own attempts at art to stick figures with triangle skirts to show the difference between boys/girls or if feeling REALLY creative, adds eyelashes (We all have our challenges and yes guys, I realize this is one of mine) I envy the person who has more skill than the artist of the bathroom signs.

Carry this example to my time at the Vatican and you can see why I appreciated it so much with Anthony, the kiwi (New Zealander!) as our guide. I added a few photos as an example of some of the incredible things we were able to see. I would have taken a shot of Papa JP deuce but they waved us through that really quick so you will just have to go to Vatican City yourself to see the latest dead pope’s burial site.

On a final note, I love knowing people’s top 5 places they would go if they could pick anywhere. Leave a comment and let me know! Here are mine after conquering Vatican City;

1.New Zealand J

2. South Africa

3. Hong Kong

4. Sudan/Chad (don’t worry mom, not anytime soon)

5. Tie: Istanbul/Constantinople AND Madagascar (I just can’t pick only 5!!)