Rome-3

The dome is 138 ft across, I read on the web.



These photos of St. Peters in Rome hopefully will give you some idea of the magnitude of this structure and how high we climbed.

On the front of the building note the row of standing statues on the first horizonal plane, then look at them on the roof-top photos I took on our way to the dome interior and cupola outside catwalk. Also note the tall vertical oblisk thing out front of St Peters and then again in the photo that I took from the cupola.

The whole circular area that is basically empty in my photo is the space that is filled with folding or stacking chairs on Sundays and when the Roman Catholic Pope addresses the crowds. That is a LOT of chairs.



The smaller culopas that you can see on the roof in my photo but they are just the bright white spots on the interior shot of the mini-domes that are covered in mosaics in the inside. They are about the size of a dome on a 'regular' cathedrial.

There are about 6 or 8 of these on the side wings of the cathedral's interior space. The big, ultra gigantic center dome rim is shown in one photos and if you look just above the mosaic writing, you can see the other people who were up there when we were. Look for a person in a blue shirt/white pants on the right on the catwalk.

There is nothing else like it in the world. This is the 'Mother of all Cathedrals' !!

In one photo, Sara is standing by a group of figures carved from what looks like a single piece of marble and this is just one 'statue' on a side wall of a pass-thru between one of the many , many different parts of the interior. There are numerous such statues in St. Peters. The floors in the cathedral are fantastic marble inlay.

The photo that shows the crest shaped inlay in the marble floor shows a part of the foyer area.

We went to the Trevi Fountain at night--glorious,..... we were just sorry we couldn't spend more time that evening

Surely Rome deserves about 5 posts to the blog but that will not be possible...because....as we discovered today when we wisely went first thing to Termini , the train station to buy our train tickets for tmorrow to Venice, ITALY IS HAVING A RAIL STRIKE !
But, we did find out, after standing in long lines and take a number information boots, that if we ere able to get out of town before 9 am we could maybe get a ticket, so we leave the hotel at quarter of 6 in the morning for the train we catch at 6 something to Venice that we were lucky enuf toget confirmed seats on.

After we left the train station we hopped on the underground and rode to the sation nearest St.Peters. There were a lot of people in lines, we joined them, we thought that we were in the line to go into the Bascilia but as time went on, we finally figured out that we might be on our way to something else, and we were. In fact, we ended up among the select few who went to the tip top of the dome of St. Peters, so we can truthfully say that we saw ALL of Rome today.

It was SOME CLIMB I can tell you. Unbelievable and when we got up near but not all the way, we were able to go out on a catwalk around the inside rim of the interior of the main dome of St.Peters. It was mindblowing. We were so tiny up there in the crown of mosiacs that the people on the floor couldnt even really see us r notice us.They would have needed binoculars.

I have been lightening my load at every stop. I brought stuff I am not using. One of my friends told me to leave my hair curles at home.I should have listened. I should have left the hair dryer there too. It is a little travel folding one thank goodnss. I left the coffee maker on the Wind Surf. I finally got it working, but slowly.

Rome is absolutely unbelievable. Sara and I think every child in the States should be brought here as part of a general education. She has said over and over, "You just DON"T UNDERSTAND UNTIL YOU SEE ROME FOR YOURSELF"

She says funny stuff too. I have been telling her that when she talks to someone with limited English to mke her first sentence, or three or four words count because they will be focusing and thinking hard on those words as you ramble on with other words. She was buying a gift for a male friend and she wanted to be sure it was not feminime looking and she asked this Italian woman "Does this look like a man?" as she held up an item that obviously did not n any way resemble a man. I laughed and laughed on and off all day.

When we went up all those steps to the top of the dome at St Peters I mentioned that the number of steps was similar to the number of steps taken in a step aerobics class, and she replied, in all sincerity, "But this is worse becaue we have to come back down too"

Or Rome hotel is ultra fabo. The decor is so Italian it is off the scale. Total marble bathroom with back and gold designs on walls ad diamond designs on the floor. Custom bath hardware, very vary fancy, the room has a curved tray ceiling with gold leaf, the walls are upholstered witha trapundo looking taupe fabric. The furniture is Empire style. The lamps exquisite. The carpeting is custom with a double border. We even have a tiny entrance all with a mosaic marble floor. I took lots of photos and will add them when I get home to a real computer. Meanwhile I will try to add an internet photo I found.--nope, cant, this webtvthing wont let me.

We spend a lot of the day laughing and truely have not had even one dissagreement or gotten crabby with each other. We are good traveing companions.

Sara says she now wants to save every cent in the future for travel.. .