Here’s a view of the dome of St. Peter’s from the museum:

Spiral staircase exiting the musuem:

St. Peter’s Square:

Inside St. Peter’s Basilica:

This picture really doesn’t convey how enormous and awesome the Basilica is.

Here’s a view from up in the dome (not a terribly easy climb I might add!) that may give a better feel for the scale:

Outside views from the top of St. Peter’s:

Castel d’Angelo, a fortress near St. Peter’s built by the Romans and later used by various popes during politically turbulent times:

As a Protestant I naturally have mixed feelings about the Vatican. On the one hand, St. Peter’s and the museum are undeniably amazing acheivements and it’s impossible not to be awed by them. On the other hand, they do seem to represent a certain papal opulence that would raise the hackles of any true-blue Prot.

I actually found St. Peter’s itself to be a bit overwhelming aesthetically. It may be so big and with so much going on that you can’t really take it all in. Sublime rather than beautiful, in Edmund Burke’s sense. Not sure what that means in terms of the proper theology of a place of worship.