Round-the-World Holiday, June 23 - July 28, 2003

On to Rome. Our first stop was the Vatican and specifically its Museum. This is the big entryway. I didn't take any pictures of the Sistine Chapel because you've all seen it a hundred times already, right? What surprised me was how small it was. You know the picture of God reaching out and giving Adam the spark of life? I thought it would be huge. Instead it's just one tiny panel amidst many, many others. Anyway...

This is St. Peter's Basilica, my favorite church from the whole trip. It was built on the spot of St. Peter's grave and is surrounded by a huge open piazza.

St. Peter's has one big dome and several smaller ones, so it's not as dark as you expect. Here's a shot where I tried to capture the light coming in from one of the smaller ones. (However it was too dark for my picture of Michelangelo's Pieta to turn out. Sorry.)

I liked this statue of a dragon, which I think was from a larger work depicting St. George slaying it.

St. Peter's was so nice I didn't even mind putting on a skirt. This is the view from the front doors out towards the Piazza San Pietro.

See! Here we are looking back towards the Basilica.

Here's the Snook looking at his favorite Roman bridge, the Ponte Sant'Angelo. It leads directly to the front of the Castel Sant'Angelo, which is where the Popes used to live.

Next we went to Piazza Novona, which has some fabulous fountains. This is a bit from the Fountain of Neptune.