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Saturday, March 9, 2013

Picture blog | Musings from Rome

Hello to my fellow blogolites!

Before I tell you about the special blog I will bring to you this morning, apologies are in order. I have been writing this blog for a week and have not recognized the fine work of Helen Lee. For this I am sorry. I send my musings back to the States and somehow Helen makes them coherent and uploads them onto the page. She is the engine that makes this vehicle run.

Today we are going to take a photo tour of my walk up tithe dome of St. Peter, or as it is called in Italian, the cupola. In all my travels to Rome I have never gone to the cupola so this will be an adventure for all of us.

Tim and I arrived early to climb the stairs, we thought there would be a long line but it was just us and a couple of young ladies. We had our choice of taking the stairs or the elevator. Being brave we chose the stairs. I found out that brave and foolish are sometimes closely related. What a climb. Our first stop was inside the cupola looking down into St. Peter's. Here you can see the view.



I actually got a bit confused and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get outside. My confusion may of been from exhaustion because of my "brave" decision to take the stairs.

Let's discuss the stairs. Here are a picture of my feet on the stairs.



As you can see they are very small and this next picture looking up shows how steep they are to climb and how the walls lean way to the right.



As I climbed my shoulder and head hit the wall to the left. In full disclosure, I found this interesting and fun.

I finally made it out onto the outside of the cupola and WOW! It is breathtaking. Literally it takes your breath away. Before me was the city of Rome in all its beauty. Here you will see pictures of the square.



The Vatican Gardens


The Sistine Chapel



Vatican offices


I could have stayed in the cupola all day but alas I had work to do in other parts of the city.

As I made my way down, the first exit led me to an area right behind the statues of Jesus and the apostles that reside on top of St Peter's basilica. Here's a picture from a position you rarely see.



From there I made my way down into St Peter's and then out to the square where I typed this blog.

Well I hope you enjoyed this picture blog, and thanks to Helen, Tim and Fr Reed for all their help in making th
is possible. Stay well.

Your Friend,

Jay

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can anyone go Up, or just very important friends of Fr. Reed?

CatholicTV said...

I wouldn't call any of us at CatholicTV "important", but here is tourist information for those interested in going up: http://saintpetersbasilica.org/touristinfo.htm#cupola

CatholicTV said...

(but as with many of the tourist draws in Rome, it can be quite the physically demanding experience!)