Sesto Giorno - Holy Devotion

Today we went to the Vatican and I am almost speechless. Simply put, it was amazing. We have seen some beautiful things so far, but there was something about being at the very top of St. Peter's Basillica to the cupola and going to Mass in St. Peter's(at the very front) that just gave me chills.

We started off the day walking over to the vatican and getting in line to go up to the cupola. The cupola is a large dome at the very top of St. Peter's Basilica. We had to walk up about 500 steps in all to reach the top. You walk up through the church to the roof then there are another 320 steps to reach the very top. These last 320 steps get steeper, smaller and windier as you go(at one point you have to walk very slanted in order to fit through the stairwell. It is also extremely hot in this small space, so we were all sweating a ton and getting more and more tired from the steep walk. Once at the top, it was such a relief and then I looked up and it was all worth it. The view is simply amazing. As you walk around you get different views of every thing in the city. The best was standing right in the front and haveing a perfect view of St. Peter's Square looking all the way down to the river and Castel de San Angelo.

After we had our fill of awesome views of Rome, we went down to the actual Basilica. I learned that nearly all of the columns in St. Peter's were taken from other temples, both pagan and christian, from all over the world(as far as turkey.) It started being built in the 12th century and lasted hundreds of years, 1200-1700 years. There is also all different layers of churches underneath St. Peter's. After walking around for a while, we ended up being able to go to mass in St. Peter's at the very front! Though this sounds cliche', I can't really think of any other word to describe this experience except to say that I felt very holy. I felt connected to god in a way I never have before. At different points in the mass I definitely got chills just thinking about how I was literally sitting at mass in the biggest, most imporant church in the world, the church that the pope says mass in, the church that st. peter's bones are built on top of, I could go on, but I will finish by saying that I simply felt wonderful being able to have that experience and it was a lovely Rome Sunday.