South Pacific Travel

David Stanley has authored guidebooks for Lonely Planet and Moon Handbooks. He has seen every country in the world and visited all but one.

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The richly decorated Baroque Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola (1650) in Rome, Italy, was built by the Jesuits as a preaching church during the Counter-Reformation.

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A huge ceiling fresco (1694) titled "The Glory of St. Ignatius" by Andrea Pozzo is in the Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola in Rome, Italy. This Jesuit church was built for the thousands of Pontifical Gregorian University students.

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Almost two millennium after its construction, the coffered concrete dome of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy, is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. The central opening to the sky is 43 meters above the floor.

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The 2nd century AD Pantheon in Rome, Italy, has been a church since the 7th century. The building is the burial place of many notables (including the painter Raphael Sanzio). The current high altar was added in the 18th century.

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The tomb of Vittorio Emanuele II (1820-1878) is in the Pantheon in Rome. His epithet "Padre della Patria" refers to his role as the first king of a unified 19th century Italy.

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The Pantheon on Piazza della Rotonda in Rome, Italy, was rebuilt on the site of earlier buildings in 126 AD by order of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.

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The Neptune Fountain on Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy, was installed in 1574 but the central marble figure of Neptune fighting with an octopus was only added in 1878.

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Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) on Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy, carries a Roman copy of an Egyptian obelisk. The Danube, Ganges, Nile, and Río de la Plata are represented by allegorical figures.

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A 1514 Renaissance fresco by Raphael Sanzio of four ancient Greek Sybils receiving a prophesy of Christ's coming and resurrection from angels is in the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace near Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy.

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The Tiber, Italy's third longest river, meanders through the center of Rome. Massive stone embankment walls were built along the river after a disastrous flood in 1870.

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The dome above the Madonna of the Column or St. Leo Chapel is one of 10 minor domes in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.

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The Altar of St. Leo the Great (1653) in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, portrays the historical meeting of Attila and Pope Leo. The figures of Apostles Peter and Paul appear above the King of the Huns to dissuade him from invading Rome.

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The dome of the Baptismal Chapel in the first bay of the left aisle of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, carries 18th-century mosaics of baptismal scenes.

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In 1678 Gian Lorenzo Bernini created the Tomb of Pope Alexander VII in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. The red marble drapery is lifted by an allegorical gilt bronze figure of death with Charity and Truth on each side.

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The Dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, is another masterpiece by Michelangelo Buonarroti. For a close up look at the mosaics and a panoramic view of Rome, ticketed tourists can climb 551 steps to the top. The lift only reaches the terrace.

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A gilded bronze Baldachin (1633) with a white dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit in the canopy is directly below the massive dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.

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Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Baldachin (1633) in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, is one of the largest bronze artworks in the world with four spiral Solomonic columns supporting a huge processional canopy.