This was Kevin's first day to sight-see, so we HAVE to go to St Peter's Basilica!!! It is very late, and I have been loading these pictures for hours. I tried to put them in the order they happend. At least, in the order of things that we did. But, the first seven or eight were not right, but just keep going, you'll get the idea. It was a great day for both of us. Stacey had to work, and did not feel guilty about sending us on our own. After all, he has been the official tour guide to this place a dozen times. So we set off at 9:00 A.M. and got back at the hotel at 6:00 P.M. It was an amazing day. From the mom's point of view, it was a memory I will never forget. We laughed, talked, and took over 500 pictures.....no really....we did!!

These next two shots were from the inside of the big dome. We had just walked up the first set of stairs. Almost 300! These were mosaic pictures all around the dome. Beautiful!

These next two pictures are out of order, (it's getting late) and we were actually walking down. I was leaning in on the wall, but if I stood up straight you could tell that the walls were curved in. Kevin was going down another tight spiral staircase in the next picture.

This was the very last few steps. The hand rail was this ROPE!!! The spiral of the stairs made me dizzy!! It was AWESOME!! I only looked scared...........................I had the best time sweating off those 10 pounds!

Above, Kevin had a great time taking these sweaty shots of me!! He kept saying, "Hey mom, look back at me...then snap!" We laughed after we got back and looked at them and noticed the "SOS" sign just to the left of my head!!! This was just a few steps to the very top, and people were dropping off light flies!! Notice the curve in the ceiling? (Also, I might add at this point, that Kevin and I loved it when we would pass someone because we could climb faster. We wanted to actually "beat" people to the top!! I don't get it when people say the boys are competitors!!?)

Below, look how skinny the final steps were to the very top!!
That is Kevin in the blue jeans standing above the "E" inbetween the "A" and the "D". The pictures of the angels and cherubs behind him were all of mosaic. We left here and climbed the rest of the way to the very top!!!!

We made it!!!!! What a shot! I can easily say, one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. We took a million pictures from on top of St. Peter's Basilica. You can walk all around the "Coppola" and spend as much time as you want. Well, for $4.00 and over 500 steps, I would hope so!! The next set of pictures are just looking out. The ones with all the green grass and beautifully manicured lawns are the gardens within the Vatican...the Pope's back yard, so to speak.........uhumm. Enjoy.......
Kevin was on the phone here, trying to call back home and report that he was standing at the top of the biggest church in the world, but when nobody answered, he realized it was 5:00 A.M. back home. Shhhhhhh


Notice the Pope's backyard Koi pond on the right side of the picture in his private garden? The next picture Kevin zoomed in for a better looksy.


This is called Victoria Emmanuel Monument, (The Italian version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) Just to the ri ght of it, right about......................................below here....is the Colosseum! It is miles away!!
Somewhere in these buildings is the Sistine Chapel, and the Pope's apartment is located in the building right in the middle of the picture. His window overlooks the piazza.

This was a little bit of a posed shot of how tired we were after just climbing half way up to the very top of the dome. It was just so stinking hot, and we were both sweating so hard and laughing about it, and it just kept getting worse!! Our shirts were both dark, and we were getting those ugly white stain marks you get from a really good sweat!! When we look shinny in the pictures...it was sweat!! It was worth it though, and we said we would do it again.....after a good long rest..........



We just came down from the top of the dome. You can't even see the people in the top from this distance unless you zoom in, and we are only a third of the way down!
The picture below shows a rooftop garden. You can only see it from the top of St Peter's. I loved the green in the middle of all the browns, golds, and yellows. Some priest has a great view!

First of all...we forgot to bring my tripod! After many years of being frustrated with "fuzzy" pictures, I found out that there is a thing called "Shutter Shake. The best way I can explain it is sometimes you need to have the camera still because the lens needs to snap at a slow speed to let in enough light, and during that time your heart beat in your hand causes "Shutter Shake." WELL, that's something good to know!! That's why the pros all use those ugly things!! I final got one and it works like a charm. Getting great shots.....when I remember to bring the darn thing. Soooooo, many of the shots inside the Basilica where fuzzy, and I'm to picky about this stuff to post them. We are planning to go back inside soon and I will send tons of shots from the inside of St Peter's. It is amazing. But here are just a few that were not to bad. The wing span on this dove in the stain glass window at the very back of the Basilica, is six feet wide!! When you are standing in the middle of the church and looking at the window, you are still so far away that you can't even tell it is a dove! Did I say from the middle of the Basilica???? That's how big this place is!!!!

The picture is not that clear but note the size of the man in the blue shirt walking around the bottom half of the dome. Now, look at the size of the letters below him! Kevin took this from the floor of the Basilica, and had to use the zoom!

After coming down from the top of the Basilica, (and sweating from every pore in our bodies) we went down below the Basilica, to where the Popes are buried. This first picture is Pope John Paul's tomb. There was a long line of people, that only wanted to see this very simple tomb. People were leaving flowers, candles where burning, most were on their knees, and most had tears rolling down their face. It is easy to see how well loved this Pope had been. I also noted that while Pope John Paul's tomb was very simple, all the other previous Pope's had very elaberate tombs. I posted a couple more of other Pope's tombs. It was very hard to get a good picture in the poor light, and with no TRIPOD!!!!!!!

These are just a few of the outside shots we took. We have several and I have played around with them and love them in the sepia color as well as in regular like below. I'm thinking that at the end of this experience, I may frame several of these in black and white, or sepia and put them in my hallway. I just love them!

The above picture was taken when we were coming down from the top of the Basilica, because we thought the "Garden" looked so awesome. We then noticed the bells and the next picture we zoomed in on them. I love the close up of the bells!!! Anyway, the "Garden" actually turned out to be a German cemetery. We walked across the street, thinking we were going to enter a garden, and were awestruck! The place was so peaceful, beautiful, and amazing, that I don't think I will ever forget it!! A few nuns came out of one of the doors and stopped to talk to each other and I walked up to them and asked them to give me some information about the cemetary. One of the nuns, who spoke English, but had a very heavy German accent told us that it was a German cementary. I asked if they were connected to the Vatican somehow. She said that some of the people were priest, but that many were not. Some were woman, and you didn't need to be "In" the church to be buried there. She smiled when she said that, because she was looking for the correct word to use for not being a nun or priest. She said, umm, regular person?? lay person?? I smiled and said I understood what she meant. The nuns walked off, chatting quietly and happily. Kevin and I stayed a long time and took a million pictures. I posted alot of them below, but not all. It was just so amazing. I want you all to enjoy it as much as we did.