St. Peter's Basilica

Considering the wonder and grandeur of the other churches and basilicas we'd already visited, we thought we might be jaded with St. Peter's. No need for concern on that front!  We were filled with awe and reverence. 
Just when you think a few more sculptures and paintings collected inside a building made of thousands of cubic yards of marble can't really be much different from the last, well....
There's no describing the massive space that is also somehow inviting and comforting. Like the other churches, the architectural details alone are enough to make you realize it was designed and built as a massive labor of love and devotion. The artwork, mosaics, and sculptures housed within build more intensity. The various altars, large and small, engage your attention and draw your focus. And from a place built in the floor right in front of the main altar you can view a glimpse of the tomb of St. Peter, where we had been just a few minutes earlier. 
In each of these magnificent churches there seems to be one something that pulls at your soul in particular. For me (Mary), on this day, it was the Pieta. Michelangelo's masterpiece depicts Jesus after He was taken down from the cross and laid across His mother's lap. She is holding Him gently and her face is full of a tender sadness. No doubt there's much to be said from an artistic and art history point of view. Looking at the sculpture, I almost expected the figures to move, or maybe see the wind blow the folds in Mary's robes. Then some part of my brain would remind the rest of me that this was stone, not flesh. But as a mom and a Christian, I also felt great sadness and compassion for the pain and the loss which must have engulfed her. 
I guess that's the most amazing thing about all of these churches. They were built hundreds, several hundreds of years ago. Yet the impact today is still overwhelming to pretty much everyone who enters. You only need look at the faces of all the other visitors to realize that. 
I think that sense of reverence and awe is something we will remember always.