St. Peter's Basilica and Square in Vatican City - the smallest sovereign nation in the world in terms of both population (900) and size (less than one square-kilometre). Tiny though it may be, it houses the most important collections of artefacts, art, relics, and archaeology in the Catholic world. Being a separate country (albeit landlocked by the city of Rome), Vatican City has its own postal service, currency, newspaper, radio station, and even an army of Swiss Guards (below-right) to watch over the Pope's personal safety. The basilica was completed in 1590, and was designed in part by Michelangelo.

Big screens and speakers - the Pope is getting high-tech!

The Swiss Guards look more like court jesters.

St Peter's Basilica is absolutely amazing inside! I don't really get too excited about the inside of a church, but this really is something else! It has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world, and is able to host 60,000 people.

Plenty of sinners in the confession booths today hehe.

From the basilica we walked around the exterior wall surrounding Vatican City to the Vatican Museums on the other side. The wall was lined with more black fellas selling genuine fake goods (they don't like it when you shout "Police!" by the way ;) and with beggars perhaps trying just a little too hard.

The Vatican Gardens, which cover over half of the Vatican's territory.

The Vatican's emergency services hehe, complete with an army vehicle, just in case ;)

The Vatican Museums contain an astonishing collection of art and treasures and other bullshit hoarded by the popes over the years.

Ooo yeah right there, that's good, mmmm!

What do these three have in common about their groin area? That's right, broken legs ;) Nothing a bit of Super Glue couldn't fix.

This guy looks to be holding his pecker in his hand.

Hahaha!

It's quite a maze in here with something different around every corner, and plenty of tourists creating traffic jams.

"Dear Diary, Typical stinkin' fucking hot day here in Egypt, and the pharaoh is busting my ass over the damn pyramid being behind schedule, but little does he know what his daughter was doing with me round the back of that thing last night. Let's just say I made a pyramid of my own..."

Tapestries...

Paintings...

Some pretty exquisite work on the ceilings...

Examples of old chariots from back in the day (looks like they upgraded to a Toyota 4WD at some point ;) ...

Even the staircase is cool!

Weeeee!

"And when I think about you I touch myself..."

This is sort of the climax of it all: the Sistine Chapel, probably most famous for the frescoes painted by Michelangelo on the roof which took him around four years to complete.

Photography is strictly forbidden here, but that didn't stop me last time, nor did it stop any of us this time, nor for that matter does it really stop any tourists at all hahaha! Jared got caught filming one too many times and we all got escorted out hehe. Vatican Police: stern, stern but fair ;)