3rd day in Rome - The Vatican Feb 22, 1999

Up at 8 am and breakfasted at the hotel’s buffet again.  Randy booked a trip to Florence for $75 (120,000 lira) and asked the front desk for a wake-up call tomorrow at 6 am.  For today’s trip, we took the metro to Vatican City.  We went to the first entrance we found, but it was blocked by guards.  It turns out that this is the entrance is to the private residence of the Pope, although that’s not stated anywhere; they just stop you when you try to go in.   

Just around the corner is St. Peter's.  The courtyard is immense, and really beautiful.  There is an arch of columns on each side, not quite a half-circle of columns, that is four columns deep, and an obelisk in the center.  

There is a spot on each of of the monument where the 4 rows of columns on each side line up visually to look like one.  The front of St. Peter's was being cleaned (of course) so the entire front of the building was covered by scaffolding.  We went into the bookstore outside the church first, to look for an Italian Missal for Randy’s friend Brian.  We found one, and also got a small sculpture of the Last Supper for Randy’s co-workers. 

Then we went into the church.  The entire ceiling is covered in gold leaf.  There are huge sculptured monuments to past Popes; everyone seemed to try to make his crypt bigger and better than the one before him.  The “throne of St. Peter” is at the front, set up high and just under the stained glass window of a dove.  Apparently there is a plain wooden chair which is assumed to have been used by Peter, and now it has been encased inside an ornate, gold-decorated chair (although I am not sure why they felt that a man who used a plain wooden chair would want that).  There is also a statue of St. Peter made from dark wood and dressed in scarlet robes.  

We went downstairs to look at some of the older Popes' memorials and St. Peter's grave marker.  In the basement is a small, decorated box in a glass enclosure that is supposed to mark where Peter was buried.  It’s downstairs, but there is an opening in floor so it can be seen from the main level, also.  Peter hasn’t actually been buried here for a long time, but legend says this was where he used to be buried, and a small church built over the spot was the beginning of St. Peter's cathedral.

Back upstairs, looking up at the dome can almost make you dizzy.  It's really beautiful, but it is also so high up that you cannot really see the intricate details.  At the very top is the cupola of the dome, letting in sunshine.

And you are allowed to climb the dome.  There is an elevator that goes part of the way, and after that there are 320 steps.  That's a lot of stairs.  As you get near to the top, the steps get narrower and walls start slanting inward.

The last section of steps is so narrow that the stairwell just twists around one slender column.  But it is so worth it to climb all those stairs, because the view from the top is wonderful!  I don't know how far you can see, but it must be miles.  Standing at the front, you can see the whole of the courtyard, which is amazing.

And walking around the dome, you can see across the whole city.

And if you turn around and look up, you can see the very top of the dome, with that little cupola that lets in the sunlight.

One couple at the top said there was a church in Florence with a higher dome; I don't know if that's true, but this was incredible enough for me!

After we left St. Peters we went to see the Vatican Museum, but as we were arriving the crowds were leaving.  It turns out the Museum closes before 2 pm.   This was a big disappointment, but since we are going to be here for the rest of the week, we can come back.

We stopped at a restaurant for a soda and a beer, and there we met a girl from the US.  She moved to France to teach English and was in Rome for a holiday.  When you are in a foreign country, your ear instantly picks up on a familiar accent.

Next we walked around that section of the city and split a sandwich of prosciutto ham and cheese.  Then we went back across the Tiber river.  We found Navona Square - it’s a nice plaza and very picturesque.  We got some gelato there and walked on to the Pantheon.  This is a round building, still whole, with a columned porch (portico).  Like many famous landmarks in Rome, it sits in the middle of a busy area, with modern (though narrow) streets running right next to the ancient walls.

The portico, is interesting; it looks like they used parts of other buildings to create this.  The front is uniform and regular, with identical columns across the front and sides.

But the columns inside the porch, and their capitals, are quite different from each other.

Inside the building is one main room with cool, gray walls of regular pattered squares.  The building is rough on the outside, but inside it’s been converted to Catholic monuments.  And Raphael is buried here, per his request.

At the very top of the roof is an opening which lets in light, as well as the rain.  Throughout the long history of this building, that fact has influenced how the interior has been decorated and used.

We walked around the area, checked out Ignazio church, then went to see the famous Trevi Fountain.

It’s a large fountain with several sculptures and a large seating area around it.  Love the detail!

We spent some time there before taking off again.  We looked at a wine store and some nice leather stores, and stopped again at McDonald’s "for soda”.  When it started to get dark, we went back to see Trevi Fountain all lit up.  Dinner was soda, chips and sandwiches from a pizzeria near the train station, and we called it a night by 9 pm.