The Vatican

Being Eric and I, the first thing we headed for was the roof. Remember those statues lining the walls? They won't let you get too close to them, and it was very windy that day so they really wouldn't let us get very close at all, but we guessed them to be 10-12 feet tall. Eric gives one a close inspection.

Next level up: looking out one of the narrow windows on the nearly claustrophobic final ascent to the top of the dome. Somehow they get away without putting a sign that says, You must be no wider than this at the entrance to the stairs, but I had to turn sideways to squeeze through a couple of spots, and duck to get through others. Both walls slant inward to compensate for the angle of the dome. It's a little surreal.

Finally at the top! Well, almost... this is the railing at the top of the blue part of the dome. If you look closely at the picture before last you can see people standing at that level. It was bitterly cold so we didn't spend long up there, but we did spend long enough to take this shot looking back down across the courtyard and over the cityscape of Rome. There are also narrow ladders leading down the dome from this level, and candleholders placed every few feet down. Presumably, this is how the dome was lit before electricity. Being a monk must've been more exciting in those days, particularly when it came time to draw straws for who had to light the candles on windy days!

This photo is one of the few that shows the villa-style homes of Italy. Every city we have visited in Europe seems to have a bit of its own idea of how to build things, and this style seems unique to Rome (or at least Italy). Multi-storey apartments are built around a central courtyard. Sometimes the courtyard contains a beautiful garden, sometimes it's been turned into a parking lot, sometimes it's just nasty pavement and trash. Mostly, you can't see the courtyards from the street, but here you get a peek inside.