2/7 St Paul's Outside the Walls

Two things immediately struck me about St Paul's. The first is quite how ordinary the building looks on approaching it from the side, however, this is dispelled when you get round the front and presented with a tranquil cloister and beautiful facade.

The Second it with the absence of any side altars and no dominating monuments you are drawn straight into the sheer loftiness and openness of the nave, where after admiring the Confession and Baldacchino your eyes trace over the portraits of the Popes from St Peter to the current Pope Benedict XVI.

If St Peter's helped me appreciate the size of the Rome Catholic Church then with its Popes St Paul's helped me appreciate the age of the Church.