Rome: Day 2

We began Day 2 in Rome with Santa Maria degli Angeli, former Roman baths that were converted to a church by Michelangelo. The pictures presented here are not the greatest, and I really recommend you click the basilica's link above. It's in English and has hundreds of pictures. This video shows another meridian, added much later (1702) and modeled after the one in Bologna. Look closely at the end and you'll see the small hole

where the sunlight enters to light the meridian line (not the large window but rather the very small hole in the arch).

These pictures are actually outside the main worship space, in a small cloister of sorts inside the walls of the church but outside the main area. Remember, these were baths previously, so there is an excessive amount of space to accommodate the hot, warm and cold bath spaces. This places would have been used by

thousands of people in a single day.

We had breakfast at 8 a.m. and gathered to walk at 8:30. We reached this church by or before 9 a.m. and there were already several tour groups in the building. Next we hopped the subway and went to St. Peter's.

This video is not a poor pan of the piazza, but another display of the line. Now that everyone must pass through metal detectors, even free sites such as this have lines like Disneyland.

This video from the top of St. Peter's is more to show I made it than anything else. In 2002, Nicole went up and I didn't (I stopped at the drum, avoiding the last 300 or so steps). This time, Filiberto guilted me into going up, so I did. It's a pretty spectacular view, but by the time we got up there (about 10:30), it was already pretty crowded. Going to the top of the dome is not free, either - Week of Culture or not (Vatican City is not part of Italy and doesn't participate).

St. Peter's has lots of things that make it amazing, but first and foremost is size. Unfortunately pictures can't quite

express this in part because the proportions of everything are done so well. One of the students didn't believe Kim when she told him that the letters around the drum were 12 feet high, and he asked Filiberto to confirm that (which he did). It might help you get a sense of the size if you compare the space you see in this video to the relative size of the people. The dome, designed (not painted) by Michelangelo, was his way of "copying" the dome Brunelleschi built in Florence. He told the people of Florence he was going to build a "sister" dome in Rome - bigger, but not more beautiful.

We found a place for lunch nearby operated by Emil (Egyptian) with homemade pasta. Seated next to Kim is Harmony, the accountant from AHA who came to meet with Filiberto this week. In previous years I would have just grabbed a sandwich and gone souvenir shopping during the lunch break. Not anymore - I'm too old and it feels too good to sit down after 4 hours of touring.

After lunch it was off to the Vatican Museums. Like St. Peter's, the place is immense. Someone could take a thousand pictures without even trying. We walked past pieces just stopping to study a few selected ones, but many of the things we passed could be the centerpiece of a lesser museum. Again, my pictures are awful and the link above provides a lot of great stuff. Of course a lot of people go just to get to the Sistine Chapel (through the museums is the only way in) but that's a terrible mistake. Michelangelo's ceiling is way up there, requiring binoculars for a detailed view and the chapel is quite crowded and noisy (despite constant shushing from guards). The Raphael Rooms just before the chapel are also crowded but at least you get up close and personal with the frescoes, and unlike the chapel photographs are permitted. By the way, of all the Ninja Turtles, why do we Anglicize only Raffaello's name? Michelangelo, Donatello and Leonardo all keep their vowels, but Raffaello becomes Raphael.