----- Original Message -----
From: QueenLilia@aol.com
To: EZHERB@aol.com ; parlevent@bluewin.ch ; alicia.L.Arevalos@williams.edu ; QueenLilia@aol.com
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 5:36 AM
Subject: ROMA #6 (last one)

Okay, here is the last batch, day 4 in Rome.  The Vatican and Sistine Chapel!!

Ok, here is the front of the Vatican from St. Peter's Square.  LOTS of statues, and I was already to the point on my camera where I had to delete a picture in order to take one.  :-(

you can see that there is a statue every few feet!

pretty ones, too!

Here is the ceiling right inside the door.  It was the last place I was really allowed to take pictures.

Detail of the outside of St. Peter's Basilica.

a pic of Michelangelo's dome in St. Peter's Basilica.  Now, if you're wondering how I got up to the dome...well, it wasn't easy!

Here's Derek winding his way up the 320 plus stairs (that's AFTER the elevator ride) to the top of the 136-meter-high dome.

And here's the view of Vatican city from the very top.

And the last picture of the trip: the Pieta.  It's a lot smaller in real life than I ever imagined, but it's very beautiful!!
We went to the Sistine chapel next.  If you think you can "just pop in and see the ceiling" you're wrong.  You have to go through a miles long maze of ancient and modern art before you can get there.  By the time you get to the ceiling, you're too tired to really appreciate it!  (especially if you've just finished climbing to the top of the basilica).  The ceiling was also smaller than I imagined, and a lot more detailed!  Some of the paintings really did look like their legs were hanging down from the ceiling, and some of the pictures in the Last Judgment were pretty gruesome...
But I'd say it was a very nice trip overall!  If you ever go, give yourself more than 4 days, though.  We saw a LOT, but we had to skip a lot too.
Well, hope you enjoyed the tour!
love you all,
xoxoxoxox
sarah
(sorry there are so many pics.  :-)