9/20 Friday
After
successfully negotiating our way through the Vatican Museums, we’re ready to
take on St. Peter’s Basillica. Entry is free, but there is a security check to
go through. The enormous front plaza is familiar to us from broadcasts of the
recent pope’s selection. A large section is set up with chairs, perhaps for a
mass on Sunday, and the rest of the space is full of people milling around or
standing in the sun waiting in line. It takes some figuring to find the line.
We sort out a group of people who are obviously in line, then work our way back
along a snaking string of people until we get to a spot where nobody acts
offended when we join in.
The
crowds disperse once we get through the scanners. When we walk into the
basilica, we can see why. It’s not just the biggest church we’ve ever been in,
it’s about the biggest building, period. You can hardly see the end of the hall
from the doorways. We decide to go back to the entrance for an audio guide. The
lady at the desk says, yes, they have a guide, but it was recorded by one of
the cardinals, and it is all religious. She suggests we sign up for a guided
tour. We can go in a half hour if four more people sign up. So we agree, and
just walk around the front portico for a while, looking at the statues and
gigantic carved doors. Then it turns out that of all the thousands of people
visiting that day, there are not a mere four willing to take the tour with us.
So, we get the audio tours after all. She again reminds us that they are mostly
religious, whatever that means. We are at the Vatican, after all.
The
guide is fine, with plenty of commentary on the sculptures, history and
artists. The church is fantastically beautiful, as one would expect of the
centerpiece of the Catholic religion. We visit the central altar, presumably
built on the site of St. Peter’s martyrdom, with his relics kept in a crypt
below it. Pretty amazing.
There
is a bronze statue off to the side, which everyone considers to be of St.
Peter. The provenance is obscure, though, and it may actually represent some
earlier god. But for now, it’s St. Peter, and everyone who visits lines up to
touch his bronze foot, either in prayer or for good luck. Some people stand and
have their photo taken while they touch the foot. We don’t exactly know what’s
going on, but we go along and stand in line too. The foot, both feet actually,
have been through so many hundreds of years of this petting homage that the
metal has been worn down, leaving “St. Peter” with these weird, flattened seal
flipper feet.
After
the main basilica, we need to see the cupola. There is a fee for this, and of
course, a line. There are numerous signs warning that there are 500 some steps
to the cupola. The elevator will take you past 270 of them, but you’ll still
have to climb steps to get to the top. We bypass the elevator. The
stairway becomes narrower and narrower as you ascend. As you reach the part
that passes the great dome, the walls get all rounded too. It’s like some kind
of team-building experience with people you don’t work with. Finally, at the
cupola walkway, there’s a wonderful view of the city. There are also all those
people who were waiting in line ahead of us. Oh, and they forgot the signs
telling you there are 500 some steps back down.
1 Video Included
St. Peter's Bascilica
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