Until you've been to St. Peter's Basilica, you haven't really been to church. We can tell you that the Dome is 435 high and 138 feet in diameter, but that doesn't begin to describe the scale of Michelangelo's magnificent structure. It's huge! And it's indescribably beautiful.

We joined thousand of other people today in visiting the Basilica, which is the main attraction in the Vatican. In the Piazza San Pietro (St. Peter's Square), they were preparing for Sunday's inaugural celebratory mass for Pope Benedict XVI. TV crews were camped out in their semi-permanent scaffolding, and dozens of satellite trucks were parked at the edge of the Tiber River.

Inside the Basilica, we viewed Michelangelo's Pieta, one of the most serene sculptures in existence. Bryan had seen it in 1964 at the New York World's Fair, but it seemed more at home here. We also saw the Statue of St. Peter, which people rub or kiss for good fortune, dozens of pieces of Renaissance art and sculpture, and incredible wall and ceiling decorations.

It was a bit unnerving to see the bodies of several popes on display in their funeral monuments. The idea of using a church as a mausoleum was just a little off-putting to our Protestant perspective. We also did not join the tens of thousands of people waiting in line to see the body of Pope John Paul II. (The line to see the Basilica instead was considerably shorter.)

Because of the recent conclave and preparations for the celebratory mass, the Sistine Chapel was closed, so we were unable to see it.

The rest of the day, we rode a special bus route that took us to many of the tourist attractions. If you should ever visit Rome, this ride is quite a bargain. It's called the 101 Open Bus; for 13 Euros, you can ride it all day long, getting on and off at any stop, as many times as you want. Aside from seeing the attractions, it's convenient, cheap transportation. The purpose of the bus ride was to orient ourselves for further exploration tomorrow.

Our hotel in Rome is, um ... quaint. Because hotels are very expensive here, we opted for a local hotel instead of a chain. Our hotel is literally across the street from the Colosseum and the Forum. We are on the third floor (which is actually the fourth floor), without an elevator. We had to lug our 100+ pounds of luggage up 54 steps. The advertised "Internet access in the grand lobby" is actually about half a kilometer away in an Internet cafe. The 10" TV has no English-speaking channels.

But that's not all bad. For the first time in two weeks, we are not being subjected to CNN, the round-the-clock, round-the-world "Who's Your Papam?" channel.