The Hill Town of Orvieto

While in Italy, we wanted to visit at least one hill town, so we decided to stop in Orvieto because it was the perfect halfway point between Rome and Florence. The town was built on top of a hill for protection in the third century BC! We loved the views of the rolling hills. It was so relaxing and a good change of pace from the busy city of Rome.

It looks like someone took a knife and sliced a huge rock to form walls around the city...

As we walked to the other side of Orvieto to see different views, we were pleasantly surprised that the town was so nice...

More dramatic stone cliffs:

You know the saying... the grass is always greener? Well, the grass that surrounds this house is literally greener than most other houses. How would you like to have a cypress lined driveway to your house?

We hiked along the ridge of the cliffs...
And it was a workout... I'm a little behind in this picture!

We continued to have stunning views the whole way.

Before heading back to the train station, we walked through the town once more. This is the most colorful church we saw during our Italy trip...

After a good taste of an Italy hill town, it's off to Florence!

Vatican City

Did you know that Vatican City is the smallest country in the world? Well, according to Wikipedia, it is. :) Although a small country, it is condensed with sights, including one of the most popular museums and one of the most extravagant churches in the world. When we arrived in Vatican City (two smelly & jam-packed subway rides later), there was a long line of people waiting to get enter the museum. Fortunately, we had a reservation, so we skipped right to the front of the line. It was Nate's idea to make reservations for any museum that we wanted to visit... and boy, am I glad he thought of that, because we saved so much time!

Nate and I are not big museum people, but we absolutely loved the Vatican Museum. It was unbelievably beautiful and massive, with over 1,000 rooms of art!! The rooms alone were so luxurious that the art within the rooms was often overshadowed. Here is a little taste of what we saw...

I loved all the Egyptian artifacts, because we will be visiting Egypt soon!

This painting, which I love, captures this scripture... John 20:27 - Jesus said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe... Because you have seen me, you have believed; but blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."
This is the famous torso which inspired Michelangelo...You'll notice that this torso is very similar to the pictures of David that we saw in Florence. Don't worry you'll be seeing plenty of David pictures very soon.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It's hard to imagine that one man (Michelangelo, of course) painted the entire Chapel by himself.

The ceiling is incredible. Not only is it a beautiful work of art, but Michelangelo creates a three dimensional illusion. This is actually a picture of a flat ceiling, but it looks like things are curved and jutting out. There are nine scenes from Genesis depicted on the ceiling in chronological order, but my camera could only capture about five...

My favorite scene is the most iconic and recognizable one... the creation of Adam. There's just something about it...

After visiting the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel, we headed to St. Peter's square to take a break and enjoy the nice weather before going inside St. Peter's Church.

About 30 minutes later, these ominous clouds rolled in... so we decided it was a good time to go see the church!
On our way in, we were lucky enough to see the changing of the Swiss guards. The guards must be Catholic, single, males, Swiss citizens, have completed training with the Swiss military, and have certificates of good conduct. They also must be between 19 & 30 years old and taller than 5'7"... is that specific enough!?

St. Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any other Christian church in the world and can hold up to 60,000 people!

It also has the tallest dome in the world... with a whopping 448 feet between the ground and the ceiling!

There is a band of gold stretching around the entire church which displays all of the words Jesus said to Peter in the Bible. It's hard to tell in this picture, but the letters are 5 feet high!

After touring the church, we sat in Vatican City a little while longer before heading back to to the heart of Rome.

Here we are standing on the famous bridge lined with angels and a castle in the background. Nate read the book, Angels and Demons, and this bridge played a prominent role in the story. Or so he tells me. I guess I'll find out if he was right if I see the movie.

Later, we had dinner in Rome's Piazza Novona, which was a great place for entertainment... lots of live music and other crazy acts

Since it was our last night in Rome, we strolled around some of our favorite parts... and that included the Trevi Fountain!

Next morning, we said goodbye to Rome and headed to the hill town of Orvieto.