Day 3 Part 2 - The Vatican and the Borghese

 You can pay 7 euro for the privilege of climbing to the top of the dome on St. Peters.  It involves hundreds of steps up the narrow passageway.   The higher you get up inside the dome, the more the walls curve to match the outer shape of the dome.  This is not recommended if you (like the poor girl in front of me) are claustrophobic and decide to have a panic attack halfway up.  There is no emergency exit.  There is nowhere to go.  The stairs up are a one-way route.  You have to take different stairs to get down.  I have no idea how long it took her to climb past people on the way down. 

I'm not leaning.  It's the walls that curve.

Regardless of the effort involved, the views were spectacular.  This is a view right back down into St. Peter's square.  Rome is in the background across the Tiber River.  

Here is a zoomed in shot of Rome taken from the Dome.  Our Bed and Breakfast was just to the left of the Coliseum.  It was not a difficult walk to get from one end of this photo to the other.  Rome is easily accessible on foot.

Click on the photo to see it in its high resolution glory.

Having survived the ascent, I got this photo of Miranda with the dome behind her.  We are actually on the roof of the Basilica in this shot.  

Standing on the roof of the basilica after surviving the climb to the top of the dome.

A look back towards the square from the front of the basilica.  You can see the line of people along the back of the square, waiting to pass through the metal detectors in order to gain entrance to the church.  You can also see the scaffolding that has been set up for the news crews that were there to cover the papal conclave.

All things considered, the crowds in the square were reasonable.  I imagine they get much worse during peak season.

The statue of St. Peter makes a handy perch for a bird keeping an eye out for its next dive bombing victim.

That's me in front of the basilica.  Look at the people standing along the railing in front of the church.  Look how tiny they appear compared to the building.   The scope and scale of this church can not be described.  It has to be experienced.

One of the fountains in the square.

There is huge gap in time between photos here.  After St. Peter's, we jumped back on the Metro and hurried back to Rome.  We had reservations for the Borghese Gallery.  The Borghese was easily my favorite museum in all of Italy.  It was a small museum, but there seemed to be a masterpiece in every room.  Sculptures by Bernini (David, Rape of Proserpina, Apollo and Daphne) and paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, Rubens, and Correggio were absolutely stunning.  If I could recommend one museum this would be it.  2 hours of amazement.  Unfortunately, the Borghese strictly enforces a no camera policy, but you will just have to take my word for it.  You can look at their Wikipedia page for examples of a number of their works.

We had some time to kill before our 9:30 dinner reservations, so we rested and talked for a bit on the Spanish Steps.  You can see a photo of us "talking" below.

And then dinner.  Oh yeah.  Dinner.  So amazing.  

Quit taking pictures so I can eat!