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Try to arrive in the square before the real crowds begin to gather. The person who stands in this enormous cobble-stone piazza clearly owes a debt of gratitude to the great architects Bernini, Maderno and Michelangelo. Standing watch from above the 284 columns of Berninis colonnade, and from the rooftop of St. Peters itself, are 140 larger-than-life statues of saints. The Basilica of St. Peter was begun under the papacy of Julius II in 1506. As you enter the basilica, which has the traditional form of a Latin cross, several things will strike you: its size, its incredibly ornate decoration and, most of all, the pervasive golden light that bathes every corner of the church. The central and side naves are filled with altars, monuments to the Popes, statues of the founders, intricate mosaics.
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Western Europe
