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VATICAN CITY , ITALY General Info Rome The Colosseum More Historic Rome Vatican City St. Peter's Basilica Vatican Museums Sistine Chapel More Photos Vatican City is a sovereign landlocked enclave surrounded by Rome. It is the modern-day home of the popes and is the smallest independent state in the world in terms of area and population. Currently, the Head of State is Pope Benedict XVI of Germany. The term Holy See also refers to the Pope and the Roman Curia—in effect, the central government of the Catholic Church—and is the sense more widely used today. Vatican City is considered a non-hereditary elective monarchy with a sovereign that wields absolute authority. The monarch exercises supreme legislative, executive and judicial power not only over Vatican City but also over the coextensive Holy See. The monarch is the Pope, elected for a life term in conclave by cardinals under the age of 80. The Pope appoints cardinals to seats in the Roman Curia with specific authority to administer Vatican City. We arrived in Vatican City on our first day of sightseeing in Rome. We got off our hop on-hop off bus on Ospedale di S. Spirito, the road leading to St. Peter's. Walking towards St. Peter's was quite extraordinary - the domed Basilica was beautiful. We passed about 10 Pope-on-a-Rope tables (as we called them). There were tables full of Pope paraphernalia from rosaries to snow globes to magnets to Pope soap. Interestingly, you can't find many Pope John Paul items. The vendor said that when a new Pope is selected, the old pope items are disposed of but who knows... We arrived in the HUGE St. Peter's Square (Piazza San Pietro), located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica. It can hold up to 300,000 people and is said to have the largest number of visitors in the world. Millions of tourists wait here either for the Pope's Sunday blessing or to enter St. Peter's. The open space before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace." The classical style of the piazza is expressed in the Doric colonnades, four columns deep, which frame the trapezoidal entrance to the basilica and the massive oval area which precedes it. The colonnades define the piazza. The oval center of the piazza, which contrasts with the trapezoidal entrance, encloses the visitor with "the maternal arms of Mother Church" in Bernini's expression. On the south side, the colonnades define and formalize the space, with the Barberini Gardens still rising to a skyline of umbrella pines. On the north side, the colonnade masks an assortment of Vatican structures; the upper stories of the Vatican Palace rise above. Another thing you immediately notice are the Swiss Guards, the Pope's private army. The guards are independent of the Swiss armed forces and are employed by the Roman Catholic Church. They wear some of the oldest uniforms in continuous use, though Michelangelo, contrary to legend, probably did not design them. The tunics are striped in the colours of the Medici family: red, dark blue, and yellow. They get paid about 1,000 U.S. dollars per month, paid in Swiss francs - but they are given full board and lodging at the eastern edge of the city, north of St. Peter's Square. Every year on May 6, anniversary of the Sack of Rome, the Swiss Guards renew their vows of allegiance in the Courtyard of San Damaso inside the Vatican. In a colorful ceremony, new recruits kneel down, raise three fingers of their right hand to symbolize the Trinity and swear to serve the Pope "to the death". The requirements to be a Swiss Guard include: Swiss male citizen Roman Catholic Good moral ethical background Attended military school in Switzerland Between 19 and 30 years old At least 5' 8.5" tall Not married Have either professional diploma or high school degree St. Peter's Cathedral >

In 1981, Swiss Guards helped protect John Paul II during an assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square. The plainclothes guardsman who rushed to the pope's aid became a hero and was named commandant of the Swiss Guards in 1998. Within hours of his promotion, however, he and his wife were shot and killed by a disgruntled lower-ranking guard, who then committed suicide; these were the first murders known to have taken place in Vatican City since the mid-19th century. The Swiss Guards are sometimes referred to as the Vatican City police, but a separately administered police force is charged with the overall security of the nation-state (except St. Peter's Square, which is under the jurisdiction of the Italian police).

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