Early bird

Got up as early as 5:30 today to walk to San Pietro and avoid the queue. Was taken for a local and asked for directions,  passed by Colosseo, Piazza Navona and Sant' Angelo with no one present.  Awsome! Especially when you know what these places look like during the day.
Entered San Pietro with the few dozen people who were there as early as me. The cathedral is quite impressive I have to admit if only for its height and rich interior. Bernini's canopy is just a unique masterpiece.  Unfortunately you can only see it from a distance which makes it difficult if not impossible to make out the intricate carvings.
In all its splendor I still missed the special atmosphere that churches usually have. Despite the crowd the Pantheon was such a difference yesterday. I don't know. San Pietro looked to me like catholic business.  There were priests in half of the alcoves and worshippers doing... well dunno some kind of service I guess. And visitor could sit or kneel and listen to their readings or incantations.
I have to admit I have never been present to a service and I still feel kind of uncomfortable in a curious kind of way watching those rituals. Still it's interesting to see how people seem to gain strength from praying. And seeing all those priests and monks and nuns... I was close to asking them how they live. What they do each day. How they live without love. Well, yeah. They claim they have the love of God, but how can you live without bodily love? If that only means a hug sometimes?

Anyway, climbed the 500+ stairs to the cupola. The guys in front of me where younger than me and had to stop a few times to catch their breath when I was still feeling like a walk in fhe park, haha. Seems like I have gained some stamina during the last few months.
The walk around the inside of the cupola is impressive. Michelangelo's paintings are outstanding although I could not really enjoy it in full due to the high fence. Guess people used to commit suicide there as the fence ws like 2.50m high.
Ascended to the roof next. The view was great. The only decent view of piazza San Pietro.

Went to the Musei Vaticani next. They openend at 9am and it was 9:15 when I arrived there. Gee, it was crazy! The queue was like 500m by then. Totally crazy!  I decided to have a walk to Piazza del Popolo, the best Gelateria in town near Piazza Colonna and walk to the Colosseo from there since my ticket for the three sights in that area (Palatino, Foro, Colosseo) was only valid till today 6:30PM.
Since I already had my ticket I was in there in like 5mins, haha. Avoiding the queue and all those people pestering you with their overpriced "skip the line" tickets. No, thank you.
Went home afterwards for a nap and headed out to Trastevere again for food and drinks. Ended up at the very nice Baccanale with reasonable prices and good food.
Tomorrow and Monday are promised to have sun, sun, sun. So I will head to Villa Borghese and spent the day at the park.