The Vatican - Vatican Museum and St. Peter Basilica

The Vatican was high on my list of places to visit during our November 2025 Roman Holidays

I associate two places with the Vatican  -  Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican Museum and St. Peter Basilica - because of news reports and movies about them.

Sistine Chapel is the pope's official residence in Vatican City. One of the functions of the Sistine Chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. I was exposed to its conclave function through the news report on elections of Benedict XVI, Francis and Leo XIV. 

We visited the Vatican Museum in the late afternoon (4:30pm) of our first day at Rome. 

We got to the Vatican Museum under a setting Sun. We stood outside the wall of the museum which looks massive and ancient, in cold breeze. 

Wall of the Vatican Museum

a path outside Vatican museum

We entered the museum via a spiral stairs,  artifacts/souvenirs  lined against the stairwell wall, and then we went to the courtyard to look around -  evening glow in the sky,  and the lights in the courtyard. We lingered for a few minutes and returned inside to see the exhibits.

After the courtyard, we entered Gregorian Egyptian Museum with room after room of Egyptian antiquities including sculptures, reliefs & sarcophagi (carvings and stone coffins). Not really know anything about roman catholic religion or church, I just followed tourist  flow to look at paintings,  sculptures, ceramics, ...and chapels. It was sensorily overwhelming.

Egyptian Sculpture

sarcophagi  - coffin

Relief

I did recognize some more famous pieces or figures, such as the Apollo Belvedere - the Greek and roman god, and various depiction of Christ on a cross.

Apollo 

Crucifixion of Christ - a tapestry created by Léon Zack

Despite reading signages of some sculptures, paintings, carvings, I don't remember anything when I looked at the photos I took at the museums. 

The gallery of maps stood out for me among all the religion related museums and galleries. I lingered at the Roma maps - comparing the historical changes of Rome between ancient time to modern time.

Gallery of Maps Ceiling: Characterized by dense, three-dimensional gold and white stucco figures

At the end of the tour of the museum we came at a chapel where it was quiet with many securities present, it was Sistine Chapel. This is a famous chapel for two reasons -  best known for Michelangelo's 16th-century painted ceiling, as well as the conclave for election of new pope.

The creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

There are 26 galleries, or rooms, in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the last room visited within the Museum, as grand finale. I was glad the visit was over after 3 hours, and breathed fresh air outside the museum.

We visited St. Peter Basilica in the late afternoon of our last day at Rome, we got there just in time (5:25pm)before the entrance to the church is closed (5:30pm) to he tourist. 

St. Peter Basilica is famous as a place of pilgrimage and for its liturgical functions. The pope presides at a number of liturgies throughout the year both within the basilica or the adjoining St. Peter's Square; these liturgies draw audiences numbering from 15,000 to over 80,000 people. That's what I see from time to time on TV - mainly liturgies at St Peter's square.

The church at dusk

a procession of prayers who marched to St. Peter Basilica

We were amazed by the church ceiling heights plus large scale paintings/sculptures - It is massive because we can only compare them to a person's height.

We entered through the side entrance. The ceiling there is about as high as that of the nave. The nave of St. Peter's Basilica is approximately 46.2 meters (152 ft) high. This massive barrel-vaulted ceiling, adorned with gilded coffers. In order to show the height I had to use portrait mode to take the pictures. The central dome is much taller, at 118meter. 

The nave*

We walked around, looked up and down, entered side halls. We saw sculptures/paintings here in other churches as well, just at smaller scale, but the content is essentially the same.

We observed an evening mass, and left the church in about 1 hour.

Exit the Church, the St Peter's Square was in front of us, looking back up, the 13 statues stands on top of the roof. These statues, which are roughly 19 feet high, represent Christ the Redeemer at the center, flanked by St. John the Baptist and eleven apostles. 

The visit of St. Peter's Basilica is more a tour of architectures than a religious or cultural tour to me.

St. Peter's Square

St Peter's Basilica 

13 statues stands on top of the roof

Notes

1) The nave is the central, main body of a church where the congregation sits or stands for services, typically stretching from the entrance to the transepts or chancel.

2) Catholics were discriminated in USA, but Roman Catholic Church is the most influential church in the world. This visit to Vatican led to me looking at factions of Christianity again (Google Search):

Christianity has major branches like Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, with Protestantism further dividing into numerous denominations like Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, and Pentecostals, all sharing core beliefs but differing in governance, practices, and interpretation of scripture. These groups emerged from historical splits, such as the East-West Schism (Orthodox vs. Catholic) and the Reformation (Protestantism from Catholicism).

3) Why is Catholicism is discriminated in USA - Discrimination against Catholics in the U.S. stems from deep-seated historical Protestant nativism, which viewed Catholicism as a foreign, anti-democratic threat loyal to the Pope rather than the state.

4) Books I read  about Roman Catholic - A pilgrimage to Eternity, Michelangelo - God's Architect. A Pilgrimage to Eternity addressed the dark sides of Christian churches:

a) "wars of religion" where Christians killed other Christians over theological nuances, highlighting the irony of a faith based on peace fueling centuries of conflict.

-The European Wars of Religion (16th and 17th Centuries):"intra-Christian wars" triggered by the Protestant Reformation. killed more people than World War I

-French Wars of Religion & Huguenot Persecution: Discussed in the context of sectarian violence.

-The Protestant Reformation: Specifically, the anti-Semitism of Martin Luther and the iron-fisted rule of John Calvin in Geneva.

- The Spanish Inquisition (1478–1834) was a tribunal established by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms. It targeted conversos (Jewish converts), Moriscos (Muslim converts), and later Protestants, using secret trials, torture, and executions to enforce religious conformity and punish heresy. 

b) the paradox of "Holy War," where the cross was used as a banner for conquest and the massacre of non-believers - 

 

- The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims started primarily to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. In all, eight major Crusade expeditions—varying in size, strength and degree of success—occurred between 1096 and 1291. The costly, violent and often ruthless conflicts enhanced the status of European Christians, making them major players in the fight for land in the Middle East.