The City State of the Vatican is the smallest independent sovereign country in the world and for its immense treasures it's the richest. The holy see guests the biggest roman art collection in the world, with approximately 6000 roman statues preseved in the vatican museums. A huge part of the vatican is featured by the biggest church in the world, St. Peter's Basilica, an amazing creation of Renaissance and Baroque architecture. The Basilica raises up 140 meters (420 ft) with its dome designed by Michelangelo, who spent 30 years of his life working for the popes in Rome.

What you will be able to see when coming from the harbor of Civitavecchia will be really a short percentage of what really the vatican has under the floors of its precious galleries.

The Vatican City has its own constitution, postal system, seal, flag, and other symbols of property. The Vatican also has its own army, the Swiss Guard, numbering about 100 soldiers. The swiss guards today work as private guards of the popes and cardinals because there is a treaty of extradition between Italy and the holy see for crimes committed within the state, like the terrible attack against John Paull II in 1981. The Italian police is permanently taking care of the security on the other side of the Tiber river.Vatican Radio is the official radio station, and powerful transmitters beam ?the pope's voice? to a global audience. In 2001 Vatican City had an estimated population of 1,000 people. Citizenship is gained by permanent residence in the Vatican together with the performance of special duties in the service of the Holy See.

The pope has absolute executive, legislative, and judicial powers within the city. He appoints the members of the Vatican's government organs, which are separate from those of the Holy See, the name given to the government of the Roman Catholic Church.

In the Papal Palaces that house the Vatican Museums, the biggest in the world, there are paintings by Giotto, Beato Angelico, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, and then the collection of classic Greek and Roman art that includes such artifacts of world-wide fame as the Apollo del Belvedere and Laocoonte, and the tapestries designed by Raphael, the maps drawn by a cartographer of the 16th century that are so precise, they could be used even today. We shall walk through the apartments of the Popes, and the great Stanze di Raffaello (rooms in the Papal apartments painted by Raffaello). The journey through time and art must culminate with one of the world's wonders - the Sistine Chapel - the "Holy of Holies" of the Popes, covered with frescoes painted by the greatest artists of the 15th century, and completed with frescoes by perhaps the greatest of all artists, Michelangelo.