Roma IV: St. Peter's and the trip home (to Spain)

Our flight back to Spain was not until 9:30pm, and so we had one more day in Rome. We woke up early to avoid long lines at St. Peter's basilica. This was our third walk over the Tiber to the Vatican.

But when we arrived we found that preparations were underway for an event, which would not end until 1pm. It was the 400th anniversary of something.

So yet again we put off seeing St. Peter's, and instead decided to go for another walk around the Pantheon area, heading back across the Tiber.

Along the way we saw more graffiti art.

Those two monkeys have a Banksy look to them, but I am not sure.

Around the corner from them we encountered the large mural at the top of this post. I stitched together 4 photos showing most of the mural. The banner on the left seems to say "Case ai proletari" ("houses to proletarians" ? Abby think maybe it's "hunt the proletariet" -- comments welcome!) and the flag at the right end says "Prendiamoci la citta," or "Let's take the city". It's a fun mural that reminded me of the Diego Riveras we saw when we lived in Mexico.
 

We also stopped in this glass shop to buy a glass plate as part of our plan to compile a table setting one item at a time from each town or city we visit. In fact, we had so far purchased just the pitcher from Frigiliana. But we found a lovely striped glass plate in this store. The whole time we were in there I hoped no one would trip.

We then walked to visit one more church -- not a basilica -- called Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which houses a sculpture by Michelangelo. It is just by the Pantheon, so Cyrus and I went in for one last look.
 

This elephant statue is outside Santa Maria sopra Minerva:

Finally it was time to take one more stab at St. Peter's. Luckily, we hit it just right, when the lines were just forming. We waited only 30-40 minutes to get through security.

We started by going to the dome. In total it's 551 steps. After a few hundred, you come out to see the interior of the dome:

          

          

            

The pictures mostly speak for themselves.The walls (by where Abby and Cy are standing) are almost entirely mosaics.

From the interior dome we walked another couple of hundred steps up, along increasingly steep and slanted and narrow stairways, until we arrived at the outside of the top of the dome.

Bernini designed St. Peter's Square.

We lingered for a while at the top. On the way down we took a few photos of the rooftop area.

The stairs down then let us out into the nave of St. Peter's. It is huge but somehow comfortable -- very open and nicely proportioned. And like so much in Rome, it is the combination of art and history -- in this case the history of religion -- that is ultimately overwhelming as you try to take it all in.

Here is St. Andrew. For sentimental reasons, he was our meeting point if anyone got lost.

Bernini is responsible for many of the beautiful elements in St. Peter's. This bronze canopy was designed by him, as was the dove window behind it.

Again, we took our time here. Abby had a guidebook to lead us around (see photo above), and Charlotte and Cyrus impressively tried to absorb it all. On the way out we stopped to see Michelangelo's Pieta. Cy said he wanted a photo of himself with it, and leaned back casually for it as if he was just hanging out with Michelangelo.

As we turned to leave, I think we all felt that, for all the beautiful churches we visited on this trip, none of them quite compared to St. Peter's. It may have taken us four trips to the Vatican to get in, but it was worth it. I have given just a glimpse of it.

With that, we needed to make our way to the airport. We stopped by Matteo's leather bag shop to pick up our backpacks and to say our thanks and goodbyes. This poster spoke to us as we walked toward the taxi stand.

At the airport we experienced a series of lucky turns. There was no line at the check-in. There was no line at security. And when we arrived at the gate there were four of these reclining seats available for us.

The gate attendant then told us (we didn't ask) that we qualified for early boarding because of Charlotte and Cyrus, and we were the first people on the plane. Cy ran up the steps.

We always remember the stressful travel experiences, so I wanted to register that this was not at all stressful. A direct flight home, we were met in Malaga by a car service. It was late, but by 1:30am we were all in bed at home in Almunecar.

Another great day. Rome was everything we had hoped.