Fishing for Underwear

Using a handmade contraption of a metal pipe we found on our balcony, our telephone cord, our surgical tubing clothesline, and a clothes hanger, Bill was able to retrieve the underwear from the terrace below.

You recall from yesterday’s blog that we made the nearly fatal error of accidentally dropping underwear that we were trying to hang out to dry into the courtyard below us. The courtyard is locked, and though we have tried on a number of occasions to reach the person who lives there, we have decided the apartment is vacant. Thus, we had to use more serious measures in order to retrieve the necessary garments. I’m happy to say that Bill’s gerryrigged contraption worked, and even more important, apparently no one reported us to the police. McGuyver, eat your heart out.

Today we hiked to the very tippytop of the dome of St. Peter’s. We had done that once before, walking that time every step of the way. This time, being 10 years older, we took the elevator as far as it would go, and then walked the remainder of the way – some 300 steps on an extremely narrow one-way staircase. As you near the top of the dome, you are literally leaning over to avoid hitting your head on the curved wall. The stairs at the top are no more than 18 inches wide, if that. Once you get on the top, you have an amazing view of Rome. But between Bill’s dislike of heights and my claustrophobia, we have concluded that we probably have visited the dome for the last time.

We stopped one more time into the basilica itself. St. Peter’s is truly one of the most amazing things I will every see. The sheer enormity of the church is astounding. You don’t really realize just how big the art is until you walk right up to it. This photo of Bill with the cherubim that make up the holy water font illustrate the size. Apparently all the statuary are proportional so that everything appears to be the same size. If that is so, the statues at the top must be unbelievably large.

We also visited Santa Maria del Popolo, which has a painting of the Crucifixion of St. Peter done by Carvaggio that is just amazing. I was absolutely mesmerized by the look on Peter’s face as they were lifting his cross up. I love Carvaggio’s use of light and dark to show the emotion of the people and to let us know who really is the “star” of the painting.

We had dinner tonight with David Troy. We may or may not see him tomorrow night depending on his schedule. He leaves Thursday for a couple of months in the states. We have enjoyed spending time with him.