August 26, 1947.
After breakfast, checking out, and storing our luggage, we headed for St. Peter's Basilica. it is an incredible site.
You can see the line both on the left and the right of the picture. When we arrived we got in line about halfway in the columns on the left. We thought it would take us a long time to get into the church. In fact it only took us about 25 minutes to get inside. Here are detailed pictures.
Being in the square reminds one of the crowds when the new pope was announced and other momentous occasions in the Vatican. A million people in the square would be quite the scene.
St. Peter's is the largest church in the world. It is very hard to capture its enormity in a photograph. This panorama only gives you a sense of the scale. This is a 180 degree panorama the image is distorted.
Beautiful art is everywhere in St. Peter's. Here are some samples.
The ceiling of one of the domes. The famous Pieta
The side chapels have mosaics as decoration. They look like paintings until you get very close.
The Vatican is actually a separate nation from Italy. Most countries in the world, including the US, have embassies in the Vatican. As a separate nation, Italian law does not apply. Vatican security is provided by Swiss guards. According to our guide on the bus, they are all single Swiss men of impeccable character. They also must have a strong sense of identity to wear those clothes without giggling all the time. Their pictures were constantly being taken by tourists.
One interesting part of the process of getting into St. Peters was going through an area where they ensured the dress code was followed. That meant no uncovered knees or shoulders, hats removed for the men, and modest dress overall. We saw a woman with her teenage daughter who were being denied admittance because she had on a very short skirt. She was quite nicely dressed, but her skirt was at mid thigh. The mother was apparently arguing with the guard because we overhead him say something like, "I'm sorry madam, but I am just doing my job." I didn't feel all that sorry for them. It is quite publicized that there is dress code for many of the sacred places in the Vatican. So, anyone paying even a modicum of attention would have know better.
After we exited St. Peter's, we had a little over an hour before our tickets for the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum. We found a small sandwich counter where we got a cold drink and a ham and cheese sandwich. We ate sitting on the steps of the structure surrounding the square. It was about 85 degrees and humid so we were pretty hot. After we finished we found some ice cream (gelato) and found a shady spot to sit for a while. Then we joined the throngs waling around the Vatican to the entrance to the museum.
Our Visit to the museum and the Sistine Chapel continues in the next post.