 Dome ceiling at top of Vatican Museum stairwell
|  Stairwell in Vatican Museum--this is impressive, no matter which way you are going.
|  Old estruscan oil lamp display in Vatican Museum
|  Tapestry hanging in a Vatican museum hallway. HUGE! 15' x 15', at least.
|
 Statue in recess of outside Vatican wall
|  Vatican facade
|  Vatican courtyard. I don't know what the ball signifies, but it was neat!
|  Ceiling in one of the Vatican museum hallways--did you know there are around 20 museums in the Vatican? Yep. We saw many ceilings like this. All painted and accented in 22K gold!
|
 Vatican Museum facade
|  The Pieta by Michelangelo--a truly amazing sculpture and the only one that he signed.
|  St Peter's Basilica and rooftop. There are 144 life-sized statues around the rooftop. What an amazing architectural feat this building is!
|  St Peter's Square.
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 Large statue of St Paul in the courtyard of St. Peter's Square
|  Staturary atop St. Peter's.
|  Inside St. Peter's Basilica
|  Tradition has it that these were the chains the bound Peter in Rome.
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 Michelangelo's Moses statue at St. Peter in Chains Church. 7 ft tall sitting down! This statue was one of the subjects of my honors thesis in college and I couldn't wait to see it in person. Worth the wait!
|  Gladiators on their way to re-enact old times.
|  The Arch of Constantine next to the Colosseum. Together, they are overwhelming in terms of size and age
|  The Colosseum--need I say more?
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|  Believed to be Paul's sarcophagus
|  St Paul's Basilica - this is one of the most beautiful mosaics I've ever seen. At first glance it passes for a painting, but it's not!
|  Dome ceiling in St Paul's Basilica, also a mosaic
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 Exquisite Corinthian column
|  Closeup of one of the frescoes
|  Side annex at St Paul's Basilica - the paintings here are frescoes.
|  St PAUL's Basilica
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 It hailed in Capri the day we visited. We were told that it never, never, never, never, NEVER hails in Capri, making it a historic day!
|  A view of Capri's coastline from a high elevation
|  Bird of paradize plant. Capri has a lot of lush vegetation.
|  And palm trees, all imported from somewhere
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 An umbrella pine tree--these grow all over Italy and are quite lovely in groups
|  Isle of Capri - pronounced CAP-ri, not Ca-PRI
|  A pretty view of Sorrento
|  Central basin in a Pompeii bath house
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 Another frescoed wall in the house. These were beautiful and wonderfully preserved.
|  Fresco in a Pompeii house
|  A marble covered serving counter in a restaurant in Pompeii. That marble is 2000 years old. They're serving green salad today, I see.
|  Baking ovens in Pompeii
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