Rome from on high

It's been a marvelous week. The weather has been perfect--cool in the morning and warm in the afternoon. Not a cloud in the sky. Perfect conditions to see Rome from on high. That "high", of course, is the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica.

I went with a sister from Korea who came to Italy 8 months ago and is still struggling with the language. We had a wonderful time! See for yourself!

After takiing an elevator, we arrived on the inside of the cupola high above the majority of the basilica. Here we had a pretty good view of the mosaics and could see how big they really are!

These pictures will be a little out of order. Somehow the blog program keeps changing the order of the photos and I cannot figure out how to put them where I want them.... This picture as well as the ones that follow go after the last two photos. Oh well. Here you can see one of the fountains in the Vatican gardens. This one has a huge image of an eagle on top, reminiscent of imperial Rome....

What a view of the piazza, Via della Conciliazione, and beyond!

Papal insignia made out of flora.... Beautiful.

Castel Sant'Angelo, among other things.

The papal palace is to the front right. It's the building with the blue-greenish trim.

A view of the statues that stand on top of the facade of St Peter's,
along with the roof on top of the body of the basilica.

Looking down on the roof of one of the side chapels.

A view of the cupola from the level of the roof of the body of the basilica.

One of the mosaics at eye-level. Here we could observe the slight necessary distortions of the images which, when seen from below along the curve of the cupola, look proportionate and perfect.

Climing these stairs is not for everyone.
It is very narrow at a certain point, there are no handrails, and the sides curve with the curve of the structure of the cupola. Here is my companion--from the back. My apologies....

As for my work in our book center, I spent most of this past week "underground." I have been learning how to do the shipping and receiving because the employee who does that will be out most of this coming week. Thank God I don't have to learn that from scratch since I have had experience doing that in our book centers in the US.

This morning, Sr Giovanna invited me to go with her to the English College to attend their liturgy. About 20 priests concelebrated the Mass. The singing was absolutely incredible--mostly Gregorian Chant. Three soloists chanted a rendition of the Gospel of the Transfiguration for the offertory hymn. It brought tears to my eyes. I think I might be going back!