Our final morning in Rome I decided to take a quick look at St. Peter's Basilica down the block from the hotel. Dr. Caputo jokingly spoke of the luminous affect on us of his visit to St Peter's Basilica...that if we did not have time to go we could just be next to him and enjoy the glory of it all. Probably not, but his enthusiasm was convincing.
I had not planned for the Basilica. It has not been a part of my religious life these past 30 years, but it has occupied a large place in the hearts of countless millions through history and that morning I decided to make the effort to walk the few hundred feet to this popular tourist attraction.
When Jen and I got to the entrance there were no lines. It was early and the Vatican yard only had a couple of hundred wandering about. We went through a security set up similar to a small airport and walked up the stairs into the portico and the large entrance.
My experience with religious opulence is the Crystal Cathedral in California. St. Peter's has raised the bar on high-end ecclesiastical architecture and artifact and for this I am glad. I really want to establish a more generous vocabulary so that I never again use the words "pretty", "awesome", "incredible", or "amazing." Until then I am left with those few paltry adjectives to wrap around a verbal picture of my experience in that place.
The excellence of the Basilica's artistic content is sobering. The overload of massive sculptures and paintings as well as the forms of ceilings and designs on the floors called to me for an alternate way of viewing. I found myself seeking an attention to tiny details rather than the whole...looking at texture and careful attention to small sections of sculptures and paintings rather than trying to gather it all in a whirlwind tour.
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