The Vatican from the Inside - March 2006

If the Vatican is impressive from the outside, it is simply over the top impressive from the inside. Everything, first of all, looked so new. I'm not too sure how much rennovation they had done, but it was simply breathtaking.

The mosaics near the top of the dome are inexplainable. How Michelangelo and his underlings had the talent and patience to do these mosaics is incomprehensible to me - that's why, I guess, I became an engineer and not an artist ;-)


Another famous piece from Michelangelo. The nice part about being inside St. Peter's Basilica is that you can take pictures...all too often, in places where famous artwork is stored, picture taking is strictly verboten.


Another very cool part of our trip was our timing - it wasn't too long after the death of Pope John Paul II and closer to the selection of a new Pope, so the Vatican was still enveloped with sorrow and excitement.

I don't usually take pictures of gravestones or crucifixes, but the power of Pope John Paul II's connection with the people he served - especially children - was something to be cherished. A number of years before, I got to go to one of his papal masses in Denver.

I wanted to have this picture to remember a person that had so much power yet had so much love and passion for humankind - and still remained humble to the very end by asking to be buried in a wooden coffin instead of the gilded or marble coffins of his papal predecessors.