Just huge

I used more memory on photos today in Rome than I have in all the rest of the trip put together. Nothing has fueled my interest in this trip more than the promise of the antiquities of the forum and the mighty artistic achievements within the Vatican City. The colosseum was even more immense and complex than I'd imagined it would be and preservation appears to require a constant effort. Given the numbers of daily visitors walking the floors, chipping off souvenirs, and carving their initials everywhere, I'm surprised it's still standing at all.

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St. Peter's also dwarfed the images I'd formed in my mind, and was so full of art I simply couldn't take it all in during my relatively short visit.  The Sistine Chapel was painted in such fine detail that I could not process it all if I was left there for a whole day in quiet and solitude.  That's a fantasy though, because I'm now quite certain that one doesn't find quiet and solitude within the walls of the Vatican City unless that "one" is the pope.  Pope Francis eschews, at least publicly, much of the luxury and opulence that his predecessors enjoyed, and I can't help wondering what he thinks of the St. Peter Basilica.   It's already there, and it's a masterpiece of masterpieces, but should it, or other similar churches, have been built in the first place?  A non-religious person might look at the place in the context of its time and see a huge waste of resources, and even a religious believer can't deny that these ostentatious constructions are diametrically opposed to Christian values and to the vows of the clergy.  They're amazing.  People made these cathedrals to stand the test of time and they're marvels to behold, but was this an appropriate context for them?  Does it matter?  Would any concerted effort this grand ever have been carried out in the 1500s without religion or the resources of the church as a motivator?  Even the ancient Roman constructions I visited today were intertwined with the religion of the time in some way or other.  Patriotism can be an inspiration, but it's seldom completely divorced from an underlying assumption of divine right.  Being a humanist myself, I would like to see an example of an entirely secular undertaking of such a staggering scale, but I'm drawing a blank.