Vatican City, The Holy See

We got up relatively early on one of our mornings in Rome to visit Vatican City.

An advantage of arriving at Vatican City relatively early was that there was essentially no line to enter the Vatican and relatively few people in the St. Peters Square area.

Vatican City is featured on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

St. Peters Square is full of beautiful details.

This bronze statue, called Angels Unaware was installed on St. Peter's Square in 2019 and was the "first new sculpture installed in St. Peter's Square in over 400 years" according to the article "Artist says new sculpture in St. Peter's Square blends history and current events".

According to the article "Vatican sculpture dedicated to migrants unveiled", the Angels Unaware statue "depicts 140 migrants ranging from a Jewish man escaping Nazi Germany to a Syrian refugee fleeing the civil war.."

The interior of St. Peter's Basilica (Papal Basilica of Saint Peter) is beautiful as was expected.

The Vatican Museums (MVSEI VATICANI) have interesting artifacts and sculptures.

The museums also feature beautiful art work on the walls and ceilings.

Unfortunately we are not allowed to take photographs of the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina), but it was nice to finally see this Michelangelo masterpiece. The ceiling mural was higher off the ground and larger in size than I had anticipated. The post "The Sistine Chapel" includes a photograph that provides a good perspective of the Sistine Chapel's famous ceiling scene.

The sculpture Sfera con Sfera (Sphere within a Sphere) is located in the Courtyard of the Pinecone at the Vatican Museum.

Even the spiral staircase is interesting.

Wikipedia describes Vatican City, "Vatican City, officially Vatican City State, is an independent city-state and enclave surrounded by Rome, Italy. ... It is a distinct territory under 'full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction' of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity of international law, which maintains the city state's temporal, diplomatic, and spiritual independence." The Wikipedia entry "Holy See and the United Nations" explains, "The Holy See is not a member of the United Nations (not having applied for membership) but was granted permanent observer state (i.e., non-member state) status."

The Vatican City State is the smallest nation in the world as measured by area.

We enjoyed experiencing Vatican City including St. Peter's Square, the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica.