To have been so blessed...

Today was an awesome day indeed!  It started with the debate would we make an easy day of it or go to the Sistine Chapel.  Edmund keep going back and forth as to whether we would go, he worked it through and with very little said (by me) we made our way there.  It is  a most wonderful time to be in Rome as there are apparently not so many tourists (seems like lots to me)  and the end result is you get to spend more time in these special places.

We zoomed down the corridors barely pausing to take in any of the artwork along the way and then we walked through the doors of one of the most amazing places.  There are no pictures or videos allowed in the chapel.  We took our time and walked and looked, sat and looked.  The frescoes were floor to ceiling depicting a variety of the biblical stories.  The fall of humanity depicts a serpent with a face, the story of Moses is told over several frescoes and on the opposite side is the Baptism, Temptation, Evangelizing, Last Supper, Crucifixion and Ascension of Jesus.  Above that there were pictures of the prophets and some of the kings.  You can hardly take in the detail so it was great to be able to sit and look, switch sides and ends and look some more.  At the last Edmund spoke to a security guard to ask where the Conclave gathers to vote for the new Pope and where the smoke goes up from.  We sat right below the window where the smoke goes out and looked at the tile (now slightly browned) where the apparatus that sends the smoke up the chimney is set up.  It is all dismantled in between the election.  All in All pretty amazing.

The other amazing thing about this visit to the chapel was the opportunity to stand at the base of the altar give thanks for the wonderful opportunity that we have been afforded and to pray for the many people that have asked us to keep them in our prayers.  I can safely tell those who have requested it of us that you have been upheld in prayer in some powerful houses of God.  Powerful for what they represent, the beauty they hold but even more so because of the many generations who have been at prayer in these beautiful temples.

Look down, these are the floors

Look up at the Ceilings

Frescoes line whole corridors

Another Corridor

This little glass cross caught my eye with all of the etchings

A mural

the hallways are marble and frescoes as far as the eye can see

A prayer desk, very ornate and hard to appreciate behind the glass

Top of a table

Stained glass

A gate

Looking out at the gardens

Courtyard of the chapel

Pillared entrance

This globe circled around

A glance at the architecture 

The way to St. Peters Basilica 

The Apartments of the Pope

A mural in a corner building

the bells of St. Peter's ring out every 15 minutes

. . . and it will forever be 4:15 pm for us in Rome!

The Entrance Gates