the hellacious walk up to Heaven
Even though I'm not Catholic, or Christian, or even remotely religious, I was still in absolute awe when I visited St. Peter's Basilica. It's a beautiful monstrosity. There are no words to properly describe how I felt standing there in the culmination of the Catholic Church's wealth and power. I know people usually use the following words to describe other people, but it was truly beautiful inside and out.
Of course no visit to Vatican City is complete without a trip up to St. Peter's cupola. My family and I were feeling particularly ambitious and decided to climb all the way up. And what a climb it was. According to wiki, the top of the dome is 448.1 feet up from the ground, aka almost 45 stories tall. Considering that I workout twice a week at best, it was not a very pleasant climb for me.
When we started the trek up, I marveled at how they built the seemingly never-ending spiral staircase in the 1500s. By the time we reached the top I was huffing and puffing and crying out that I would never use a stairmaster ever again in my entire lifetime. But the second I stepped outside I realized the torturous climb was so worth it for the panoramic views of Vatican City, the Tiber, and Rome.
It was another one of those snap happy parts of my trip so there will definitely be more photos to come :)
top: urban outfitters, jeans: free people (also available via bloomingdale's; 25% off with code FRIENDS), scarf: zara, sneakers: nike, bag: fjallraven (also available via urban outfitters, lord & taylor; 25% off with code FRIENDS, shopbop; 25% off with code INTHEFAM)
Of course no visit to Vatican City is complete without a trip up to St. Peter's cupola. My family and I were feeling particularly ambitious and decided to climb all the way up. And what a climb it was. According to wiki, the top of the dome is 448.1 feet up from the ground, aka almost 45 stories tall. Considering that I workout twice a week at best, it was not a very pleasant climb for me.
When we started the trek up, I marveled at how they built the seemingly never-ending spiral staircase in the 1500s. By the time we reached the top I was huffing and puffing and crying out that I would never use a stairmaster ever again in my entire lifetime. But the second I stepped outside I realized the torturous climb was so worth it for the panoramic views of Vatican City, the Tiber, and Rome.
It was another one of those snap happy parts of my trip so there will definitely be more photos to come :)
top: urban outfitters, jeans: free people (also available via bloomingdale's; 25% off with code FRIENDS), scarf: zara, sneakers: nike, bag: fjallraven (also available via urban outfitters, lord & taylor; 25% off with code FRIENDS, shopbop; 25% off with code INTHEFAM)