St Peter's

St Peter's Basilica is the biggest church in the world. Our visit there was fantastic. We started out in the square, it used to be one of the many circuses in Rome, mostly used as a race track. According to tradition Peter was martyred here in the race track and then buried beneath what is now the high altar of the basilica. The square is really an oval surrounded by a 4 pillar deep colonnade. Each pillar is topped with a 12 foot statue of a saint. The bottom of each pillar is surrounded by a line of tourists trying to get in to see the inside of the church. 

The nave is enormous. The statues you see at ground level are 12 feet tall the ones you see on the second level are twice the size to give you a forced perspective. 

The high altar is enormous, the canopy has little angels carrying down crowns and pope hats for the Pope. Behind the altar is a window of a dove. The window may look like stained glass but don't be fooled, it is actually made of alabaster. Only the best for the biggest church in the world.

Above the altar is the dome. The dome is a mosaic of numerous saints looking down on the altar and, if they had x-ray vision, down onto St Peter's tomb. We got to go both above and below. 

The crypt is disappointingly plain with the exception Peter's tomb, which is delightfully colorful and full of mosaics with gold tiles. But you can't get very close, and you can't take pictures, this is one from the internet. 

Above the altar is the dome. We got to go up the dome right before it was closing. Below us they were having mass so we could hear the singing and organ playing. It was wonderful. It also made us realize how high up we were to see the tiny people down below us. Using the zoom on my camera we also got a pretty good view of the main chapel behind the altar.

Climbing the dome was a bit challenging. Not only because there were lots of stairs but also because the stairs were odd. The dome like most other Renaisance domes is double. There is an outer impressive dome and an inner shallower dome, climbing up you are sandwiched right between the two curving walls.

             

The view from the top of the cupola is incredible and makes the stairs worth it. We got a good view of the dome itself with each little curve carefully labeled with the name of the Pope who authorized the dome. We also saw some of the impressive buildings inside Vatican city. And got a wonderful view of the square itself where we started our adventure. 

You can tell we were quite proud of ourselves. 

From the base of the dome you can access the roof of the basilica we went out and got to see the dome up close and we got to go meet the statues that stand at the front of the basilica. You can see that they are very large.

Our visit at the basilica was lovely. Listening to mass from the dome was a highlight for me. We also really liked the treasury where they had all of the regalia and relics for the basilica. The collection wasn't presented very well so it didn't really sparkle like the jewels in Cologne or London but in retrospect there was a huge amount of gold and jewels there.