Cradle of Civilization: ROME - Day 1 (St. Peter's)

After a flawless flight to Rome through Amsterdam (thanks KLM!), we got to our hotel near St. Peter's Basilica without a problem.  While we could have flown in the day the ship left harbor, the time would have been really tight and we wanted to spend some time in Rome before we departed on the cruise anyway.  Therefore, we would be able to see St. Peter's that afternoon with some time the next morning to see other things, but it was going to be a whirlwind!

To begin with, St. Peter's turned out to be about a half hour walk from our hotel, which wasn't a big deal since we wanted to stretch our legs after the flight anyway.  On the way, we would get to see the first of MANY fountains scattered throughout Rome (see below)

Not sure sitting on the fountains like this is encouraged, though given the amount of graffiti all over the place in Rome, I'm thinking doing this is not such a big deal.  Makes you really look like a tourist though! 

 We also got a chance to see the Castel Sant'Angelo on the way there which was really impressive and just an outright wake-up call that we were now in a very different place than the United States (though everybody speaking Italian should have been our first clue).

Castel Sant'Angelo.  Don't ask me about its significance or anything because we were pretty much sprinting to St. Peter's.  We have only 20 hours in Rome before we leave for the ship, so...

Ditto on the Palace.  Does the Italian Parliament meet here?  When was it built?  Don't know, gotta find St. Peter's which is around here somewhere.

Ah, there it is!  Ok, let's just kind of dodge and maneuver ourselves through this crowd of people...

...so that we can stand in this VERY long line to get into the Basilica itself.  On the right side of the picture you can see the beginning of the line and watch it stretch all the way behind me and through the columns in the distance.  

Basilica with Obelisk in foreground

Agnes stands in front of St. Peter's after we made it through the line.  On top of the Basilica, you can see statues erected in honor of the first Popes.

Looking out from the Basilica back towards the way we came from.

Inside in the middle of the Basilica is this area where only the Pope is allowed to say Mass.  Even with literally hundreds of people visiting in here, there is still just a huge amount of space.  They were able to hold two (2) different ceremonies in here simultaneously while we were here without any disruption to either the celebrants or the tourists.

Tomb or Crypt of Pope John Paul II.  This was the first time it really hit me how unbelievable it was that we were actually here in Rome and would be able to see things like this.  

I really tried to decipher the Latin here, but gave up after awhile since the REAL message was awesome enough as it is...

Back outside, Agnes "poses" with the Swiss Guards.  These guys seemed pretty serious though, so we didn't want to get any closer than this and disrupt things...or have ourselves "disrupted" by a halberd!

So, we felt pretty good about being able to see St. Peter's that day, but it was time now to head back to our hotel since jet lag was starting to get the better of us and so was hunger.  Thankfully, on the way there would be plenty of places to get this:

(Of course!)