The Pilgrim's Rome

There are three churches not far from where I stayed that are the destination of Catholic pilgrims. I was motivated to go more by the fact that there is a set of stairs that supposedly Christ climb than by the proximity of the churches.

Church of Santa Maria Maggiore: Has some of the best surviving mosaics in Rome. The church was built as Rome decline was beginning. This was also the church where I attended mass on the Sunday I arrived.


For some reason this photo makes me think of an Indiana Jones movie.



This is probably an invasion of privacy on some level, but since you can't see the face of either the person giving confession or the individual taking confession I rationalized taking the photo. There were confessional boots up and down the nave where one could give confession depending on the language you spoke, I did not take advantage of the service.




Church of San Clementine: I will confess here. I didn't not take any pictures of this church because it was dark inside and there was not much that inspired me to take pictures. Either that or they didn't allow you take pictures. Think of it this way, you have reason to visit it when you go. Supposedly, you could pay a fee to enter the ruins of older church and a level below that, the remains of pagan temple.

Church of San Giovanni in Laterano: This church was built by Constantine and was considered the most important during medieval times. The building with the stairs that Jesus climbed is located next door.



One set of doors:


Another set of doors:


The ceiling outside the entrance:


The nave:


The dome:


The alter:


The nave ceiling:


The Holy Stairs (La Scala Santa): I did not climb them. I took the stairs to the left that you could climb on your feet to reach the top and look down.

The World's Smallest State

I spent one day visiting the Vatican City.

The Vatican Museum (Musei Vaticani): I started with the Vatican museum which is full of statues, tapestries, and many other items. The pièce de résistance is the Sistine chapel, but they do not allow photographs. Apparently the company that restored the ceiling agreed to do so only after securing this promise. I don't quite understand why the Vatican agreed to this. It wasn't as if the restoration company painted the Sistine Chapel and therefore getting any royalties for it and I like to think that Michelangelo would want his work to be photographed (at least I like to think he would). Anyway, the only thing I can say that it was a truly amazing experience to stand and gaze up at the most famous ceiling in the world.

The Sistine Chapel is an amazing feat when you imagine the discomfort Michelangelo must have endured in order to complete this masterpiece. The ceiling, depicting Christian history, is 5,900 square feet of frescos, nearly the equivalent of painting a football field. Michelangelo did the majority of the painting himself, and instead of lying down as myth has it he bent backward and reached up. Assistants would apply plaster to an area only large enough that Michelangelo could paint it in one day. Michelangelo had to paint quickly before the plaster would dry. If there were any errors, the plaster was scraped off and the area was painted again. He began in 1508 and finished in 1512.

Since I have no photos of the ceiling I can only provide photos of other paintings and statues from the museum. I just really liked this painting, not very light and airy, but amazing detail on the castle and the cloth in front of it.



The Final Supper:



Julius Ceasar, I think:


Luckily the Vatican believes in Modern art and had a small collection. Here are photos of my favorites:





The Vatican garden:


Various ceilings and floors in the museum:



These two floor pieces are made up of tine little stone squares. Glad I wasn't the person who had to put them all down.








The Sistine Chapel is the last stop in the museum. You are then required to walk around the walls of the Vatican to the piazza in front of St. Peter's Basilica.

St. Peter's Basilica: Rome does not have a modern city skyline because no building can be taller than St. Peter's. The Basilica is extremely large, there are marks on the floor that indicate where the next largest churches would fit if put inside. The church is big enough to hold 60,000 worshipers and stands on 6 acres. Much like the Colosseum, it is impossible to describe or photograph the splendor of this building.


Bernini's seven-story bronze canopy. It sits directly over St. Peter's tomb.



St. Peter's tomb:


The ceiling of the dome:


This is where the marks for the next larges churches are laid:


The nave's ceiling:


Below the dome, St. Peter's throne and Bernini's starburst dove window:



The letters are 12-ft tall.



More proof of my existence:

On the outside:


The colorful guards provided by the Swiss government. They did not inspire fear.



If you stand in a specific spot in the piazza the pillars all line up. Obviously I am standing on that spot.


The thin wire on the corner of the roof is where the white smokes come out when a new pope has been named.


The last two windows on the top row are the pope's study and bedroom windows. Somebody must have forgotten to tell him of my visit.


There were several screens around the piazza for the weekly broadcasts from the pope on Sundays and Wednesdays. I didn't having a strong desire to see the pope, which is why I visited the Vatican on Tuesday to avoid the Wednesday crowd.


Playing around with the black and white feature:

Is that enough photos for Vatican City? I have so many more, maybe warranting another post in the future.