More on St. Peter's

Since much of today involving finishing our application for our permit of stay a the post office, I'll write more on our visit to St. Peter's this past weekend. (Let me just say though, after 6 post office trips I finally found the permit. I was able to get it filled out, only because of the kindness of the woman in the University's office who walked me through it. Yes, it is in Italian. And then I only got it filed correctly because she took an hour out of her day today to take me to the post office and sit down with the man to complete it. Thank you Pamela!)

Back to St. Peter's...It was amazing to see St. Peter's in person after seeing it so many times on TV. The architecture and artistry of the building is just amazing. It is definitely a site we will have to go back to several more times so that we can take more if it in. Here are a few other things I noted...

(1) The scale of the basilica and piazza in front of it are perfect. Even though St. Peters is such a large basilica, it is impressive but not overwhelming. Even without understanding the architectural details (CJ filled me in on that as we were walking around), I felt like the proportions really worked in the space.

(2) The security is disappointing. I'm not sure if it is because of terrorism concerns or what, but the security they have in place makes it hard to easily enter and move about the grounds. You have to enter on the side of the piazza - not the front - and then you need to go to the side of the basilica to wait in a snaking line to go through metal detectors to get in. CJ said none of that was in place 11 years ago when he was here. I found it to be manageable - but only because we were there early in the morning. We could see that when we left the crowds in line were going to be there for a while. It's really too bad you can't just walk up the steps and go in.

(3) I loved that they had signs posted saying you'd be denied entry if you weren't properly dressed. Where are those in the states! The policy of the basilica (and for that matter all the churches in Rome) is that both men and women must have their torsos, upper arms and legs covered. There were several very clear signs (with images of people incorrectly dressed and lines through the images) showing you what you could not wear.

I'll write more on the inside after I've gotten a chance to visit a few more times. Let me just say that everywhere you look there is another impressive sculpture or painting. The service we attended on Sunday was said from the Altar of the Chair. (See the image above). This is an amazing Baroque sculpture by Bernini highlighting the image of the Holy Spirit. My photo doesn't do it justice. But one amusing story about that... After the mass we walked up near the alter to say a few prayers. I was telling Celia about the sculpture. and the chair which is being held up by the great doctors of the church - Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, Saint Jermone and Pope Gregory I. Celia was thrilled to hear Augustine listed among them and quickly pointed out to Augustine that "he" was up there!



Another amazing thing about St. Peter's is the ability to see it and appreciate it from various vantage points around the city. As you can see in the last two images, it is still amazing from a distance (here we are crossing the Ponte San Angelo). And the last image is from the key hole of the doorway of the priory of the Knights of Malta. You just need to come see this for yourself because you really can't take a picture of it. (I tried...see below). But if you look through the bronze keyhole you see a miniature view of St. Peter's framed by a tree-lined avenue. It's amazing.