St. Peter's and the Piazza

This is Rafael's fresco,The School of Athens. After the Rafael Room, we entered the Sistine Chapel but no pictures are allowed and in fact Stefano had to leave us and instruct us where to meet him after we spent fifteen minutes in the chapel.  They stopped allowing guides to accompany groups some time ago because of the irreverence caused by the talking, and also because people were lingering too long.  Logistics demands that people be encouraged to move along.  Silence was strictly enforced and absolutely no pictures were allowed.  It is of course very beautiful, but after all we had already seen I would have to be a Vatican scholar to see how it was better.  One simply has to drink it in.

This, and the following pictures are from inside St. Peter's, the largest church in the world. According to Stefano, one doesn't really "get" the immensity of the church because one loses all sense of scale inside.  I saw what he meant when we contemplated the actual size of certain aspects.

Michelangelo's Pieta is behind glass inside St. Peter's.

This altarpiece is the equivalent of a six-story building. Notice the letters inscribed on the gold  panels on either side--each letter is about six feet tall. 

Standing on the steps just outside the entrance to St. Peter's

Further down the steps.  The Dome of St. Peter's is not yet visible at the rear.

Avery, our friend from Cannes, France, joined us in Rome and here we are in front of St. Peter's, with the Dome now almost visible.

St. Peter's from the center of the Piazza with the Obelisk

Looking out to the other side of the Piazza.  A cute little family looking a bit exhausted to me.   Ah, the joys of traveling with children.