I (Anne) have been to the Vatican before, but Jacob hadn't. He was really expecting a "religious" experience, filled with nuns and priests, smiles and blessings, and good vibes to boot. But we both agreed, in the end, that the Vatican seemed to us, (and this is only our opinion) to only be a symbol of the gross excess, flaunting of wealth and endless greed of the Catholic Church. It's hard not to ponder the Church's justification for all that art, gold, and souvenir shops placed in EVERY quite corner within the Vatican buildings themselves. You have to wonder, did God plan to see his image on a coffee cup a foot outside of the Sistine Chapel? Nevertheless, it was interesting, and really awesome, somehow, to be standing in a square that we've seen the Pope bless on TV so many times over the years, and in the place where people make pilgrimages to from around the world, and consider one of the Holiest places on Earth.
Totally inappropriate floatingChrist pose in the Vatican Courtyard, where the Pope meets his public. 
A beautiful park in the Vatican, that would have been nice to sit in, only it's totally off limits to the public. 
Crossing the bridge to the Vatican City from Rome. 
A priest we saw... he asked a passerby to take his picture with his cell phone. 
The beautiful Sistine Chapel! (We actually weren't allowed to take pictures in there, but Jacob managed to get this one)
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