St. Peter's is Really Big

The temperature is definitely a lot hotter hear than in cheery old England. Standing in line here is a lot hotter experience than in London.

We got up early today and went straight to the Vatican. We entered St. Peter's at 8.15 am and there were hardly any people. Well, it seemed like there were hardly any people. There could have been a thousand people there and we wouldn't have noticed due to the shear size of the church. It can hold 60,000 standing worshippers at one time. That's apparently equal to 1200 tour groups.

We spent an hour in the basilica in the quiet of the morning before heading down to the Swiss Guards stationed to the left of the basilica. They directed us to the Scavi entrance and we went on our tour of the necropolis below the crypt level. We were 50 meters below the current floor level at times. It was amazing. It was like walking through a graveyard street full of tombs with a roof over your head. The urns from 2,000 years ago were still there. Carving of names on the walls told of family lines and individuals. It was really amazing. You can't see too much of the tomb of Peter but enough that you can see bones inside of it. Really quite something to see. If any of you ever gets to go to Rome, request a tour a few months in advance. It was definitely worth the effort.

The museums were huge and at times confusing. They have the largest collection of Roman and Greek sculptures in the world. My favorite thing to see was The School of Athens by Raphael. Jenn can't decided what was most amazing for her. There was simply so much to see.

The Sistine Chapel is really great to see but a bit of the ambience was lacking due to so many people being in it at once. Also, a lot of people just don't seem to get that you need to stop talking in a place like that. The guards did what they could but there were simply too many people in the chapel. The restored Michelangelo ceiling was incredible to see though.

We are hoping to do a walking tour this evening of another part of the city. Tomorrow we will switch from Christian Rome to pagan Rome. Hopefully we can post more pictures then. Our hotel doesn't have internet for us so we are at a store that offers it. The cafe we went to last night worked well but we think they tried stealing our identity. They asked for "i.d. like a passport" for them to hold while we used the computers. This place did not. Like we'd ever surrender our i.d. to anyone other than a police officer or border controller! Scarey!

Rome is incredible but we felt safer in London. Oh well. That's just the way it goes!