It was an early day for us today…we had to be up by 7:30 am to make it to the Vatican for our appointment for a guided tour through the excavation site beneath St. Peter's Basilica. I had to book this tour directly through the Vatican excavations office months in advance. We had special instructions to arrive at the Vatican, show our confirmation to the Swiss Guard who patrolled the west gate to the Basilica (who looked like a medieval joker, I might add). Once through the gate, there was a small group of about 8 people who were also there for the tour. We had to check in at the office to hand in our tickets and verify that we were respectfully dressed. One American man showed up in long shorts. An official quickly came out and told him that he couldn't go on the tour. There were young teenage boys on the tour wearing shorts, but we actually heard the staff speaking in Italian saying 'the bambinos are okay'. I guess the Catholic church really is anxious to keep in good favour with the young people!

The tour of the excavation site was incredible! We had a great guide who explained how the excavations had started. While doing some construction of a tomb for a Pope in the late 30's the floor of St. Peter's caved in and underneath they found an ancient Roman 'street of the dead'. It occurred to them that they might be able to find the rumoured graved site of Peter the Apostle (St. Peter) who was supposedly buried beneath the basilica. Since this all went down during WWII, they decided to excavate in secret. What they found was what we were able to tour…essentially an underground mausoleum of people buried near what was believed to be the site of St. Peter's burial ground. We went deep below the basilica as the tour guide explained the disappointment that the archaeologists had when they found the tomb of St. Peter and it was empty. She then explained how later, the archaeologists found a wall down there called the grafitti wall, where early Christians had wrote on what was the exterior of the tomb that was built for St. Peter (years after his death). To make a long story short, they noticed that some of the graffiti wasn't continuous and that a hole had been cut in the wall and refilled. When they opened up the hole, they found what are believed to be the bones of St. Peter. We got to peer in and see the bones, which are now encased in tiny plastic boxes that were made by NASA. I was pretty skeptical about this whole thing, but they actually seem to have some pretty convincing archaeological evidence that these are in fact his bones. It was a really powerful tour, and felt a bit like we were on an Indiana Jones tour.

After the tour, we exited the excavation right through the crypt area of the Basilica, where all the popes tombs are. There was a huge line to see John Paul's tomb, and we were lucky enough to just pass by it, skipping the line. As if this tour hadn't been enough, we capped off the afternoon with a tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We are pretty museumed out at this point, but there were some interesting sculptures, maps, and paintings to see. However, the Sistine Chapel was definitely the highlight. The room was packed with people craning their necks to see the ceiling. If anything, this trip has thoroughly convinced us of the genius of Michaelangelo. Wow. The ceiling was painted in a way that the figures appeared in almost 3-D, popping out at you. It was awesome. Our day at the Vatican really tired us out though, so it was a pretty low key evening, of a siesta, followed by a late dinner, and bed.