St. Peter's Basilica

Benedict XVI's Papal coat of arms in the private papal gardens below. The explanation of it is really cool . I will save it for some other time.

That's me....400ft above Rome, enjoying the early morning sunshine of a Sunday morning on the Dome of St. Peter's.

Caitlin and Andrea and I

This was really funny. There was some 60 or so FUS students that got up early and headed into Rome. I got off the metro and looked behind me to see this endless stream of them....all of them girls. As we went past this open gate to the west of the Vatican, every girl at once, as if on a cue whipped out their camera and took a picture of these 3 Swiss Guards. I was laughing hysterically at the sight, and even the well-practiced Swiss Guard's shoulders were shaking a bit.

The Jubilee Doors

I think there ought to be a sign like this outside every church in the world. What a cute way to get the point across! Modesty for dummies.

Caitlin getting a glimse at the world from the Vatican

Ahh. Rome.

Step over step, step over step, about 500 of them, all the way to the top of the highest dome in Rome. Not for the weak-hearted or claustrophobic

The Sistine chapel that I am saving for the next trip to Rome. I can't believe I spent 6 days in Rome and never saw Michelangelo's ceiling! That's just how much there is to do in Rome!

That is masses of angels painted on that dome.

For all the Saints.... Some of the 140 some saints that look over the square. These things are massive, though they don't look so big from the square.

I went to Mass, actually two, in the very front row in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday morning.

Bernini's Bronze Baldaccino (sp?)

The Chair of St. Peter!

Three guesses. Was my favorite hunk of marble in the world before I saw it...after seeing it, my opinion still stands

There have been only two saints with glasses, it seems, and every time I see a statue of them it cracks me up. Josemaria Escriva and Maxmillian Kolbe. Something about marble glasses on a statue just 'tickles my fancy' as Prof. Cassidy says.