St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

 It is everything you thought it might be.  It is colossal, yet somehow more intimate than I would have imagined, because of the simplicity of the overall design, and the details never blur that overall colossal shape.  There are some details worth traveling to Rome alone for (the "Pieta", the Baldachin, the dome, the altar), and yet the whole interior, looking down that nave toward the altar is still the sight you will remember the rest of your life. 

The other wonder is that there can be a thousand tourists in side at the same time you are, yet it seems uncrowded, roomy, spacious.  

You would think that there would be a magnificent pipe organ somewhere, but I discovered just two rather small installations.  I discovered through the web that the main organ is an Allen!  What a shame. 

Here is this magnificent Basilica.

How imposing can a facade be?

The vestibule before entering the nave. 

Opened only on holy days. 

The first sight.

Don and our guide.

The dome was designed be Michelangelo, based on the Duomo construction in Florence. 
He did not live to see it completed, which was done by della Porto with small changes. 
Michelangelo left a wooden model for instruction. 

This is a dome just inside the vestibule entrance.

Michelangelo Buonaratti
 Pieta
1499-1500
Attacked by a madman in 1978, the sculpture is now behind bullet proof glass. 

I love this skeleton reminding all of our limited time on earth. 

Two twin organ cases face each other across the apse. 

This is one of the four immense piers that support the dome. 

High over the altar.

Don

One final gaze.  

Swiss guards on duty. 

Panorama, seating set up for a ceremony. 

It was a building on my bucket list, and it fulfilled every hope of what it would be.