St Peter's Rome

This picture was taken after I climbed at least 500 narrow steps up to the dome of St. Peter's. The handrails along the stairway felt as if they had never been cleaned and the rope for the spiral stairway was slick with I don't know what. I am not usually finicky about germs, but this experience had me holding my hands out like a surgeon before I got home to wash them. Toward the top, when the wall starts to go in, you have to lean against it to fit in. 

Walking outside the cupola was a panoramic view of Rome, it looks a little polluted from that height unfortunately. 

The view from above inside the cupola was unbelievable, the basilica is immense.  All along the wall, inside the dome, were mosaics that I could touch, study and photograph.  

In the basilica my pictures do not show the opulence of the place but I did try.  In order not to use a flash, I would have to be very still, so I finally sat on the floor and did not breathe - like when one gets an x-ray.  The guard looked with disapproval and asked me to stand as someone from the hierarchy was passing by.

Despite all the beauty, it is some of the best art work I've seen here,  I felt saddened by all the money that when into it when there was and is so much poverty.

I am getting my haircut tomorrow, let's see how the Roman's do it.