you can just about see the dome of st peter's through the pillars. this was the closest i got to the biggest church in the world during my time in rome. maybe given that i was tempted to rinse my ice-cream sticky fingers in the holy water font of the only other church i visited on the trip, this isn't such a bad thing. of course i never actually would have washed my hands in the font - but i suspect the temptation of it would be enough to set off the 'sinner' alarms that they surely have at the doors of all vatican churches?