The Nativity (and more) at St. Peter's

Yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon we walked over to St. Peter's to see the outdoor nativity scene in the square. They leave it up until February 2 -- Candlemas: the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple -- which is sort of the last dying gasp of Easter and the date when you really begin to be embarassed about still having your tree up.

This year's nativity scene has raised a few comments because it seems to depict the Holy Family at home (as in Matthew's Gospel), rather than in the stable (as in Luke's Gospel). Thus, we get Jospeh's carpenter shop depicted as part of the scene:What is sort of strange is that certain elements from Luke are also incorporated, such as the manger, as if Mary and Jospeh had a manger instead of a crib in their house. Oh well, I suppose one ought to make certain concessions to popular expectations.

While at St. Peter's, we took in mor eof the sights, since Sophie and Denis don't really remember much from our visits here five years ago.The kids were particularly impressed by the point in the square where the four rows of columns. . .

. . . all line up to look like a single row:

The fountains were beautiful in the setting sun:

We went inside briefly and were once again impressed by the vastness of the place:

We discovered lots of different things there. . .

Some of them surprising, such as the fact that the altar paintings are all actually mosaics.

Some of what we discovered was strange. . .
. . .some of it was very strange. . .

. . . and some of it was very, very strange.

We got gelato on the way home. Sophie says to make sure everyone knows that it was very good.

--Fritz