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A unique look at the treasures of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and the Basilica of Saint Peter from an official guide of the Eternal City.

In a tiny enclave in the heart of Rome lies the world's smallest independent state--the Vatican. Over the course of fifteen hundred years, successive popes have commissioned and assembled an extraordinary collection of artistic works within Vatican walls.

Eminent expert Professor Enrico Bruschini takes readers on a fascinating personal tour through the Vatican's magnificent sacred halls, vividly bringing to life works by Raphael, da Vinci, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, and many others, while sharing interesting curiosities about the artists, their art, and the historical context in which they worked. Bruschini's unprecedented access to areas rarely open to the public enables him to offer a unique behind-the-scenes tour that reveals the Vatican's most intimate secrets and hidden treasures. With maps and rare photographs from the Vatican archives, In the Footsteps of Popes is an extraordinary excursion that is not to be missed.

Named art historian of the American embassy in Rome and official Guide of Rome, Enrico Bruschini is an Italian historian, art expert, professor, author, and passionate storyteller. Until his retirement from the embassy in 1998, he served as its fine art curator. He is the author, most recently, of The Vatican: Masterpieces, the official guidebook of the Vatican. He lives in Rome.