St. Peters Square and Plaza

Touring the Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel

I had the great pleasure on touring the Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel. I wanted to give you just a glimpse of what you might see, if you were to visit the Holy See in Vatican City, Rome, Italy. Obviously, any tour of the Vatican is best in person. If you cannot go there, because of limitations on your time, your health or pocketbook, then a tour with pictures is perhaps the second best approach to seeing the Vatican and all the beauty and splendor that it has to offer. The third and less desirable approach to a tour of the Vatican is to do so in your imagination through the words of another, such as this article and this website.

Therefore, the website is entitled Pictures of the Vatican City, Rome, Italy, and its subtitle is "Inside the Vatican Museum, The Sistine Chapel, St Peters Basilica, and more." Since pictures are worth a thousand words, we will intersperse these words with a lot of good quality pictures of Vatican City, the Vatican City Museum, and the Sistine Chapel. We are all very familiar with television pictures of the vast public area or square in front of the Vatican – usually filled with throngs of the Catholic faithful on various important annual events such as Easter.

St. Peters Basilica in the early morning. Vatican City plaza, Rome, Italy

As the picture above indicates there are few people present in the early morning to appreciate the beauty of the Vatican without having to navigate through a throng of tourists and the faithful. Here is a picture of the St. Peter's Square at the middle end of the spectrum from the standpoint of people. This scene has the look of a typical day. Notice the not just the people crowding around the fountain in the center of this picture, but also the crowd that has formed in front of the massive Doric columns to the right side. They are waiting to enter the main St. Peter's Basilica, where we will be going in a moment, after we get a sense of the front of the Vatican.

St. Peter's Square or Plaza on a typical day with tourists and the Catholic faithful.

Now, before we enter the sanctuary of St. Peter's Basilica, let use take one more look at the plaza on a holy day when the Pope was present. This picture was taken in St. Peters Square on Palm Sunday. It shows the Cardinals in procession and the large surrounding crowds.

This picture was taken in St. Peters Square on Palm Sunday. I shows the crowd and the Cardinals in procession.

While the plaza and exterior of St. Peter's Basilica has been witness to the ebb and flow of humanity for centuries, the interior of the sanctuary is even more spectacular in my opinion than the massive and impressive exterior facade. In the next part of this brief tour we will discuss entering St. Peter's Basilica and the impressiveness of its tremendous scale and beauty.

Tags: Catholic, Vatican City, Vatican, vatican museum

Patron Saint

• St. Elizabeth (When you click any Saint Elizabeth picture below, this action will open a different web page which has all of the details you need to buy these discounted plus high quality catholic religious merchandise. Thanks for coming to our catholic gifts and religious medals preview showroom. We help you quickly locate the catholic gifts and [...])
• Catholic Saint Andrew (As you choose a Saint Andrew snapshot lower down, we will take you to another webpage with all of the details you need to get these wonderful and attractive catholic religious products. Thanks for coming to our religious medals online shop. Here you can locate easily the catholic gifts and patron saint medals and other [...])
• Interior of St. Peters Basilica (Bernini's Central Altar and St. Peter's Throne )
• St. George (If you pick any Saint George snapshot lower down, we will take you to another webpage that contains useful information to help you decide to get these wonderful and select religious memento choices. Welcome to this religious gifts and religious medals online shop. We help you quickly locate the religious gifts and patron saint medals [...])
• Pope John Paul II (As you choose a Pope John Paul II snapshot lower down, we will take you to an additional page which has what you need to know to buy these discounted plus attractive religious products. Thanks for coming to our religious medals store salesroom. Here you can locate easily the catholic gifts merchandise that you have [...])
• St. Matthew Medal (After you select a Saint Matthew snapshot lower down, you will go to another webpage which has all of the details you need to purchase these bargain priced and attractive catholic religious merchandise. We hope you like our catholic gifts and religious medals store salesroom. Here you can locate easily the catholic gifts and patron [...])
• Posts about the Vatican and the Pope as of February 13 ( Pope welcomes Tim Fischer to the Vatican - popenews.blogspot.com02/12/2009Pope welcomes Tim Fischer to the Vatican Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia Pope Benedict XVI has personally welcomed Australia's new ambassador to the Vatican, Tim ... ://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/pope-welcomes-tim-fischer-to-the-vatican-20090212-8664.html links for 2009-02-12 - themustardseed.wordpress.com02/12/2009ZNet - Lieberman's Racism "In other parts of the world a man [...])
• Pope Paul VI (If you pick any Pope Paul VI snapshot lower down, this action will open an additional page with useful information to help you decide to purchase these bargain priced and select catholic religious merchandise. We hope you like our catholic gifts and religious medals store salesroom. Here you can locate easily the catholic gifts and [...])
• Entering St. Peters Basilica (St. Peter's Basilica and Michelangelo's Pieta >> As you enter St. Peter’s Basilica, it is hard not to be awestruck by its vast size and sheer beauty. Obviously, it was built to demonstrate the majesty of the Lord, God, and its sheer size is testament to this objective. For example, as you walk in you will see [...])
• About (Vatican5000.com provides a variety of information to keep people updated about the Vatican, the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, Catholic Patron Saints, and various developments within the Catholic world community. Write to me at victor . schultz at sign vatican5000 . com Victor Schultz, webmaster)