Unravel The Mysteries of Our Lives

Day 4 - The Vatican City Queue

Tuesday, 25 December 2007

We went to the Vatican City at 8am on 25th December, Christmas day. There was such a crazy long queue that we are pratically outside St. Peter's Square which is at least about 2.5 km from the main entrance!! We nearly fainted from the sight. Luckily, we found an "illegal" travel group that allow us to cut 2/3 of the queue and have a tour guide for Euro 35 per person. Upon seeing the drastic length of the queue, we decided to take up this offer. I can't imagine those who were queueing way behind, not knowing they were getting queue cut from the front by the 'illegals'. Even if they get into the city, they will definately not have enough time to tour the enormous place as the place closes at 3pm. The Vatican city is truly amazing!! It's BEAUTIFUL! The only bad points were that it was totally packed with people and there was too little time to visit the entire place. Plus we were not able to visit Vatican Grottos which held Saint Peter's tomb as they are closed for preparation for Christmas. Zzzzz.

Vatican City is the smallest independent state in the world in terms of inhabitants and size. It occupies an area of 44 hectares. The borders are represented by its walls and the travertine pavement curve that joins the two wings of the colonnades in St Peter’s Square. Beyond the territory of the State, Vatican jurisdiction also covers some extraterritorial areas within and outside Rome.

Vatican City is a non-hereditary, elected monarchy that is ruled by the Bishop of Rome — the Pope.

The territory of Vatican City is part of the Mons Vaticanus, and of the adjacent former Vatican Fields where St. Peter's Basilica, the Apostolic Palace, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Square and Vatican Museums were built, along with various other buildings.

Visit this website if you are interested to know more. (There is even live webcam of the buildings in some part of the city.)