Vatican City

From the Piazza Navona we were taken, vis autobus, to St. Peter's Square. Along the way, the ancient walls of Rome were pointed out to us. I tried to take it all in but without success. I was on information overload, or so I thought. Once we arrived in Vatican City, there was even more to take in.
Our first stop was an "official" Vatican Gift shop where we were shown jewelry and various souvenirs with  rather exorbitant  prices. At the urging of the shop girls we each selected a trinket.

I bought a small sterling silver cross that I wear around my neck even as I write this. I paid too much for it but as it is one of the only souvenirs of our trip, I cannot be too sorry!

St. Peter's Square was a bustling place. Our first visit there occurred on the Friday before Palm Sunday so preparations for the upcoming celebration were already underway. Chairs were being set into rows, speakers and television monitors unloaded, etc.
We had a bit of time to watch the preparations as we were queued up to enter the Basilica. From the time we walked through the outer doors, it was quiet considering all the people inside.  I was unprepared for the size and scale of everything inside. Pictures I had seen did not do justice to the building or its adornaments.
One of my favorite moments of the trip was when the tour guide motioned us right and as I turned my eyes fell upon the Pieta.  The image of the crucified Christ in the arms of his mother, carved from a single piece of marble by Michaelangelo when he was just in his twenties was something to behold.

Likewise Bernini's canopy over the tomb of the Apostle Peter, the Petra upon which Christ said He would build His church. The building is full of amazing sites but my favorite of all, the stained glass image of the Dove depicting the Holy Spirit. Something about it moved me in a way unlike anything else I saw that day, even more than seeing the Pieta.
We opted out of the remainder of the tour and stayed in Vatican City a while and then moved back through some of our earlier destinations, this time at a slower pace.
Karen the Good did a fine job of navigating with the help of an App on her Iphone.
I should say here that we felt safe wherever we walked in Rome. We took a cab only when the distance was inordinately long or our feet especially tired.