Home | Parish
| Map | Schedule
| Staff | Calendar
| History | Art
| Links | Feedback
(Return to Father John's Log!)
OLM
Parish Reporter in Rome!
November 10 - Still Discovering St. Peters
(click on tiny picture to view original)
After
two hours, an elevator ride and climbing 326 or so steps, I am happy to
send home another vision of St. Peter Basilica. I thought I would contrast
it with previous images that I have sent via this web page of this same
place and its surroundings. This view is awesome and shows the grandeur,
the feat of building and shear size of the church - from the top!
Seeing the main aisle of the church from the above
perspectives shows how magnificent it is in all its architectural grandeur.
The people in both instances are small but from above we look like ants
on the marble surface of the patterned floor. Wow! this is breathtaking.
Along the walkway inside the cupola there are
mosaics like the ones above which are huge in comparison to our human scale.
From below they appear even smaller than the middle sample of the puti
shown. The shield is a grand image of birds and gold and blue. Just to
see them inspires awe at both their art and scale.
On previous pages I have shown St. Peters from afar, shown
images of the view from both the place of the papal chair at audiences
and the altar when there is a papal Mass. I reproduce these here to give
some idea of what I saw from the outside top of the cupola after climbing
all the stairs and wending my way through narrow slanting walkways to get
to the outside and its views.
 |
 |
Looking: up to St. Peters & out from
Papal Chair at Audience!
 |
 |
Looking from behind Papal Chair & from very
top!!!!!!
On the backside of the cupola there is a view of the Goverment
of Vatican City Building which is decorated with the coat of arms of the
pope in plants and flowers - Just another visual from my trek to the top.
 |
Vatican Governor House behind St.
Peters as seen from Cupola.
Seeing the lettering on the lower edge of the dome
and the heighty of the letters it is no wonder they appear almost natural
from below - they are the height of an average person. Also, one can see
the luminosity of the window of the Holy Spirit from above as well as below
in my two photos shown here. This is truly awesome and the pictures just
give a taste of what awaits your ride up the elevator since this view is
one that can be done without the 320+ steps required to get the aerial
photo above.
Finally, the crowning joy of this visit to the
basilica has to be the opportunity without many tourists of getting as
close as possible to the Pieta. This awesome sculpture, unfortunately encased
behind glass, is awesome to behold if and when one has a chance to stand
before it without crowds, without popping flash cameras and without multiple
voices and languages talking the in the background. This is one of the
advantages of being in Rome in off season in the month of November!
(Back to the Log!)
