The Italy Series: St. Peter's Basilica

After four miles of world-class art and thirty minutes in the Sistine Chapel...one can feel rather, well, overwhelmed.  We had no chance to just decompress because, before we knew it, we were walking through the giant entryway of St. Peter's Basilica.

As a traveler's tip: most of the time, you have to walk all the way back through the Vatican Museum, around the outside of Vatican City, and then through a security and dress-code check to get back to St. Peter's.  However, if you're sneaky, there's a small door at the back right of the Sistine Chapel with a sign that says "For Tour Groups Only."  If you want to save your blistered feet a two+ mile walk, just hang around for a big tour group and simply tag along with them through the door for a direct link to St. Peters.

I don't feel bad about doing this at all.  First, because I had a blister the size of an acorn on my pinkie toe and second, Rick Steves told me to do it.  And, we all know that Rick Steves is omnipotent, omniscient, and the bringer of all good travel-things (hail Rick, hail).

"Tu es Petrus"

 

We saw the sights--rubbing St. Peter's toe and wondering in awe at
Bernini's Baldachin and stained glass window 
(the only stained glass in the Basilica)

St. Peter's is so, so incredibly huge.  It's a strange experience because, even though you know how huge it is  , it doesn't give you that initial impression.  You see the markers on the floor, noting where St. Paul's or Hagia Sophia are so much shorter, or you read that all the statues are 20+ feet tall...but still, it's all a play on the eyes.

But, really, just to give you an idea....  That bronze Bernini Baldachin?  That canopy-like thing over the high alter just above here?  

It's SEVEN STORIES TALL!  That unimposing alter canopy!

Do you see this?!

Yeah, so...

St. Peter's.

Go see it.  But maybe go see it first or on a different day than the Vatican Museum because it might not hit you as hard as it should if your mind has already been blown by Rafael and Michelangelo.

Plus, you'd get to see these guys sooner:

Signing off from Vatican City (three months ago),

H & P