In Vatican City, I was blown away by the St. Peter’s Basilica. It is the biggest catholic church in the world and can accommodate tens of thousands of people in its interior. Truly, it was mega in size and grandness. Its bronze canopy over the main altar itself was seven storey high.
Its numerous sculptures were awe inspiring because of their size, detail and art. The Michelangelo dome and other smaller domes were magnificent.
While the basilica as a whole can accommodate tens of thousands of people, its regular mass area which consists of just the portion behind the bronze canopy was itself bigger than many big churches I had seen. It was fortunate for us to sit in the mass and take in the experience while admiring the magnificence of the basilica.
St. Peter’s square was quite good just to sit down admiring the columns and the statues of saints on them. Of course, we visited the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel to complete our tour of the Vatican City.
In Rome, we visited the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and one other smaller basilica. They were both rich and magnificent.
Worthy of particular mention was a strikingly real marble statue in Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.
We visited the Colosseum and the Pantheon which were a testimony to the engineering of the Roman empire. Needless to say, the Colosseum was huge.
The Arch of Constantine near the Colosseum was a well preserved structure from about 300AD.
We walked through the Roman forum which was mostly in ruins. The audio guide we used here gave us a glimpse of street life, life of businessmen and some public ceremonies of the Roman period.
The Pantheon is an engineering marvel. Its perfect semi-spherical dome had a diameter of 43 meters. The columns in the portico were massive each weighing several tens of tonnes.
One cannot but wonder how Romans erected such a perfect and such a big structure 2000 years ago.
I have to mention that like Venice, Rome had its share of beggars, street hawkers, warnings of pick-pockets and unsolicited help from strangers expecting things in return. The metro system in Rome was nowhere near as extensive as Munich’s, but we managed all our sightseeing using the metro and on foot.