Europe, USA

The Pictures of 2022

In 2022, we visited St. Peter’s Basilica, Cathedral of Florence (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fioreon) and St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. Being the center of Catholicism, it is no surprise that Italy is home to many of the world’s most beautiful churches.

I have always enjoyed the beautiful and historical Catholic Churches.  I was baptized in a family church in China. Family churches don’t have a church building, and service is hold in the living room of the family.  As the result, the church size is small.   The strength of the family church is the support and help to the weak and the sick from its close relationship among the members.  The friendship is precious, although during that time I had difficulty in understanding the Old Testament, due to lack of resources of background of church and Jewish history from the family church.

When I attended to the churches after I came to USA, I was excited to see the beautiful churches. Europe has attracted me for its beautiful history, artwork, and of course, the marvelous holy churches.

St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica: We went to the church before 7:30 AM, so we could enjoy the beautiful church without the crowds.

Marvelous view of Vatican and Rome from the top of St. Peter’s Basilica

We took the picture of Cathedral of Florence
(Basilica di Santa Maria del Fioreon) on the top of Giotto’s bell tower. It is totally worth to climb more than 300 steps to have a fascinating view of the Duomo and the city.

Cathedral of Florence:
Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

The incredible history of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice: Constructed in the 9th century, St. Mark’s Basilica was built to house the remains of the Apostle Saint. Mark’s corpse that was smuggled in from Alexandria, Egypt by Venetian merchants. The Lion of Saint Mark is a winged lion that symbolically represents Saint Mark, patron of Venice.

St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice
A winged lion that symbolically represents Saint Mark, patron of Venice (picture from internet)

Calie and Oreo turned to 14 years old in 2022. We had a birthday party for them. They enjoyed their special cuisine. However, apparently not being the party cats, they didn’t really enjoy the great moment to wear the birthday hats for their pictures.

Dear Readers and Blog Pals, thank you for spending time to read my blogs and leave comments during 2022.  Wishing you a season full of lights and laughter, and a joyous Christmas filled with love and happiness!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year of 2023!

10 thoughts on “The Pictures of 2022”

  1. That photo of St Peter’s Basilica is fabulous. What a building! Although you wisely went early to avoid the crowds, it’s good that there are a few people in the picture as it helps me to understand the sheer scale of that building. Wow! And thank you for sharing the photo of Calie and Oreo in their party hats; I’m sure they had a lovely birthday! Have a wonderful Christmas, June, and wishing you, your family and the cats every happiness in 2023.

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    1. Agree! A few people In picture will show the scale of the church better. I will go back to see if I have additional pictures😉 The tour lady in Vatican museum told us there was 22000 visitors in Wednesday of 28 Sep 2022. Wishing you, your family, Oreo and Calie’s British cousins a wonderful Christmas 🎅🎄 and happy new year of 2023💐💐

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