The importance of timing

Any trip to Rome isn't complete without a visit to the Vatican.  I had prepared this all in advance as I was extremely excited to visit.  The Vatican is the centre of the Roman Catholic faith, and so it also the cultural centre of much of the art and architecture I had seen over my years of travel.  We made our way over to the Vatican via the Roman subway system.  It was a dirty and old system, but still seemed to be quiet efficient to move around.  From the closest station, we walked over to the Vatican along streets lined with tourist trinkets and then through the walls surrounding this city state.  Once we walked through, we were in the middle of St Peter's Square.  

The square itself was enormous.  As impressive as it was, its size was so vast that it seemed to dwarf the size of the surrounding buildings.  When we started approaching St Peter's Basilica itself, its own enormous size became far more striking.  It seemed to keep growing and we kept shrinking the closer we were. When we entered, the size of the place was even more astounding.  Inside the large vault of the basilica completely dwarfed everyone inside.  With the better perspective inside with all the visitors, the true enormity of the place became far more clear.  Apparently it's so large that it could fit most large cathedrals within its space.

We left and went looking for somewhere to rest and relax.  Walking down the long boulevard, the size of St Peters, now seemed more impressive as we walked further and further away.

Being at the Vatican was one of the most impressive things I had seen.  We were both very happy to have seen the glory of Rome and the splendour of the Vatican.  The last time I could remember being so awe struck by the sheer size and majesty of a place was probably when I visited Hagia Sofia when I was a backpacker.  I thought back to all the random travels I had done over the years.  I had seen a lot of impressive buildings and sights.  Italy had been left off the list of places to travel when I was younger for fear of being "too poor" to properly enjoy it.  I'm not sure if this had been the right decision given how incredible Italy was, but at the same time I was glad I had made this decision for the benefit of some of the other places I had visited.  I had looked at churches and palaces in other places with awe and wonder when I visited, but would I have had the same reaction and response had my eyes been already coloured by a visit to the Vatican?  Would other places have been able to stand in comparison?