We spent our last two days in Rome visiting the Vatican, St. Peter in Chains, and a couple other amazing view locations. The Vatican was a full day and started with a small group tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. The museum is immense! You can see from the pictures how beautiful it is. Believe it or not, the guide gave us a lot of information on the artwork and statues we were looking at, but it is very hard to keep it all in our brains! There’s just too much. So enjoy the photos and look them up if you need more information! Next up was the Sistine Chapel but they don’t allow pictures but it is definitely an awe inspiring moment.
After the tour we took a lunch break and were back at St Peter’s Basilica for a 1:15 Scavi Tour to the Necropolis. I sent an email 6 months ago and then waited until August before I heard back that we had a tour time. An archeologist took us under the Basilica to see “House Tombs” that sat for 1600 years under the church untouched. Again, no photos were allowed, but it was such an experience-unbelievable. It culminated by explaining all the research and discoveries helped to support the evidence that the bones they found are those of St. Peter. We saw the bones!
Below is a picture of the entry door into the Basilica. It is currently cemented shut and will be opened for the next Jubilee (usually held every 25 years). Maybe we will see you all there in 2050! The next two pictures include the Swiss Guard so we couldn’t resist snapping a shot. Our tour guide told us they also will provide information so, of course, I had to ask a question! He knew the answer.
Finally, we had Dome Climb tickets to climb the stairs to the top of the dome. You can use an elevator for the first 250 steps and that’s what we did. It was beautiful at this level and that was as far as I went. Mike persevered and made it up another 320 steps to the very top. What a day.
The next day was more relaxed but still had some images to not miss. We went to the church known as the St. Peter in Chains. Remember St. Peter from the Vatican? Well this church has the chains that were used to bind him before they killed him. Again, can’t be proved but the chains are definitely old! This church also has the famous Moses statue that Michelangelo completed as part of a crypt for a pope. There is also a picture of a “Halloween” looking crypt that we took for fun.
Next we walked around a bit more and found a terrific view shot of the Roman Forum and more old things! We did an evening golf cart tour of Rome and got wonderful pictures of all the historic sites we visited during the week. Loved Rome-stay tuned for Venice!
Leave a Reply