We went to the Vatican museum the second night we were in Rome, but because we had night tickets, we didn't get there early enough to see St. Peter's. We made a trip back one of the last days before we left Rome.
When we got to St. Peter's square, there was a line snaking around. As most people know, I don't like lines. They usually lead to me whining or randomly walking around and leaving whoever is with me to hold my spot until I find it convenient to return. That hadn't been a problem thus far in Italy since we really hadn't run into any lines because of when we were there. The one place that had a big line was St. Mark's in Venice. I had read in both of our guidebooks that if you checked a bag around the corner, you would get to bypass the line because the bag check was only valid for an hour and the line can reach up to four hours. So we emptied one of our small backpacks, filled it up with random objects, and diligently went to check our bag and picked up the ticket as proof. We walked to the front of the line at the main entrance of the church prepared to show my ticket and encountered...nobody at all. Nobody cared if I had checked a bag or not. We just walked right in. Meanwhile, there were hundreds of people waiting in a two hour line to enter. Basically, lines in Italy are for people that like lines.
So as we looked at the line to enter St. Peter's, we decided we could easily sneak in and not be noticed (like plenty of other people we witnessed were able to do). Nevertheless, I felt like we would be the one group that was called out on our line cutting and I figured that if there was one place we should actually wait it should be the holiest of holy sights. So we went for a walk and came back to encounter the same line. We decided to tough it up and wait. It was only about 15 minutes total which wasn't too bad. And the nice gentleman in front of us in line was a Catholic priest from Ireland living in Detroit who was waiting in line to get his tickets for the weekly papal audience. It seemed appropriate that we waited.
So after a wait and a metal detector, we went into St. Peter's. It was big...really big. Everything is larger than life. From the ground you can't even get the full perspective. According to our Rick Steve's audioguide, even the tiny angels adorning columns were bigger than the average person. We tried to soak it all in, but it's tough to do. There was also a service going on which let us get an idea of what goes on in an average day, even if it seemed to mostly be filled with tourists who had arranged for a service.
After walking through the basilica, we went around the corner to climb the cupola before it closed. We paid E2 less in order to climb the relatively small number of stairs at the beginning of the climb rather than taking the elevator (although I don't think anybody would have checked our ticket). As seems to be a running theme, the skies began to open up as we started our ascent.
As you can tell by the blog, we've climbed a whole lot of things during our trip, but I think we would both say this was one of the more difficult ascents. It was aided by a break partway up in which we were able to look over the inside of the basilica and enjoy a little breeze - the stairs were extremely hot and stuffy. It was very, very high, and it gave a little bit of perspective to the enormity of the sights that can be seen from below.
Climbing the rest of the way requires a bit of a tilt.
But the top was totally worth it. Incredible views of all of Rome and the square down below.
We were a little bit tired by the time we made it.
As you can tell, we were partially grateful for the rain, but it hindered the view and the ability to stay for very long. It was quite funny to watch the rain go from drizzle to pouring and watch St. Peter's Square empty (and the large line completely disappear) in roughly 5 seconds.
After we descended, we came across a Swiss Guard outpost. Because this one didn't seem to have any strategic importance, I'm pretty sure it was just there as a place for tourists to take pictures. Ali had to wait in line before we could snap this one.
They were pretty good sports. I'm not sure I would be after all the admissions requirements. (I'm pretty sure I only hit 2 of the 8 conceding the marriage thing and with the whole "good moral character" thing up in the air - don't tell the CA Bar about the moral character part).
The rain certainly makes certain parts of these trips interesting (and slightly less busy), but I think we both wish they weather would ease up on us for the rest of the trip. Alas, not so. But we got some good not rainy days that are coming in future posts and we will stop whining about the rain shortly.
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