Rome II

We spent almost an entire day at the Vatican touring the museum and St. Peter's. This cathedral is so enormous that no camera can possibly do it justice. I took so many pictures trying to capture its grandeur to no avail. There is an incredible amount of detail which gets lost in its size. It is impossible to absorb it all in one visit, so I guess we'll have to return.

See those little statues on top? They are over 30 ft tall!

The altar inside the basilica made from bronze (taken from the Pantheon) and gold standing 95 ft tall and not even close to touching the ceiling.

The sunburst behind the altar.

See that little dove in the window? Its wing span is 6 ft!

The incredible detail on the altar with the sunbeams shining down through the dome.

Looking towards the front of the basilica. The altar to the left.

Trying to capture the size of this place.

Michelangelo's Pieta in one of the niches.

Notice the incredible marble walls.

We climbed the almost 600 steps to the top of the dome and my thighs were on fire! But the view and the breeze were well worth it.

VATICAN MUSEUM

Raphael's School of Athens frescoed on the wall in a room where the Pope once lived.

A real Egyptian mummy.

SISTINE CHAPEL

This chapel is actually quite small but loaded and covered with Michelangelo's masterpiece. We spent about an hour in here listening to the story about how these paintings were created and the meanings behind them. Fascinating!

See the walls and ceiling come together.

FYI: When I was here 15 yrs ago, the chapel had not been cleaned. This is an entirely different place since its restoration. The scholars even said they had to reevaluate Michelangelo's style since they now could see how brilliant the colors were in his paintings. They left some spots uncleaned for comparison. Look in the upper right corner where the blue meets the ceiling. That black spot was what the entire place looked like before it was cleaned.

The Last Judgement.

Another uncleaned spot on the upper left side.

TREVI FOUNTAIN

This was another spot that the camera just could not capture. This fountain, which is more like a building waterfall, was so majestic. We kept coming back to look again and again. The detail is also amazing here. It is smothered in between other buildings making it difficult to get a grand view.

OTHER STUFF

We walked by the Colosseum everyday, and everyday I had to take a picture.

Patrick was really impressed with Michelangelo, as he should be. The guy basically did everything in Italy. The dome on St. Peter's, the paintings in the Sistine Chapel, and many amazing sculptures, including this one: Moses. This tomb is in a random cathedral in Rome.

Circus Maximus

Caracalla Roman Baths.

I have never seen a bath of this magnitude. Patrick is standing in the main part of the bath ruins. There is an equally large part of the bath behind me. Hot tubs to the rt and the cold pools to the lt with gyms on either side. I wish we had a place like this now days. It looked pretty luxurious.

Rome's largest Catholic Church (since St. Peter's is technically in the Vatican). Kinda looks like they stole some ideas though.

One of the niches inside. The camera did a great job at capturing the actual lighting and feel of these dark cathedrals with bursts of sunlight.