Rome Part 2 - The Vatican

On Friday we began our Renaissance Rome excursion from November of 2008 but with all of the photos that needed to be uploaded and all of the locations we visited in Rome that day, I could not possibly cram it all into one blog post.  So, today we will finish the short visit to Rome and before the end of the week, we will have finished the 2008 trip to Europe.

Our last stop on Friday was Piazza Navona.  After lunch and some free time in the piazza, the group came back together and started to walk toward the Vatican.  As we walked away from the piazza the tour guide told us about the archaeological discoveries that are still made in Rome on a somewhat regular basis and took us by one such discovery.  Under the piazza, there was an area that had been dug out for some sort of work and other structures were found under the ones presently standing.

It was a short walk from Piazza Navona to St. Peter's Square.  Rather than taking the most direct route, we crossed the Tiber River on the Ponte Sante'Angelo bridge so that we walked across looking directly at Castel Sante'Angelo with St. Peter's Square to our left.  The photo at the top of today's blog was taken from the bridge looking toward the Vatican.  The photo below was looking in the other direction.

The Tiber River

The photo below was taken as we approached the bridge.  The bridge was built in 134 A.D.  It was originally known as pons Sancti Petri (Bridge of St. Peter) since it was the bridge that pilgrims crossed to reach St. Peter's Basilica.  But in the 7th century under Pope Gregory I, both the castle and the bridge took on the name of Sante'Angelo as a result of an angels appearance on the roof of the castle proclaiming the end of a plague.

Ten angels like the one pictured below line the sides of the bridge.  They each hold instruments of the Passion.  As late as the 16th century, the bodies of people who had been executed were displayed on the bridge.

Our guide spent several minutes just standing on the bridge taking in the statues and the scenery.  I thought it was interesting that she probably does this tour several days a week and yet she seemed to be captivated by the beauty still.

St. Peter's from the bridge

Castel Sant'Angelo

The photo above does not do the castle justice.  It is an enormous building and it really doesn't look that big and imposing from this photo.  As we came off the bridge, we turned to the left and made our way toward St. Peter's Square.

 The back building in the photo to the left is the Sistine Chapel although you wouldn't guess it from it's outward appearance.  We didn't get to go into the Sistine Chapel on this tour.  I think if I went back to Rome, I would require one full day just to see everything there is to see at the Vatican.  Before getting in line to enter St. Peter's Basilica we had a few minutes to go into a Vatican gift shop and I was able to get a Christmas tree ornament from there.  I wish that I had gotten a cross pendant as well.

 The photo to the right was taken from the square as we waited to enter St. Peter's.  We were there just a few years after Pope John Paul II had passed away.  So, during the news coverage as the Pope laid ill in the papal apartment, they continually showed his window.  When I saw it, I had to take a photo of it.  So the second window from the right on the top floor is the Pope's bedroom.

The photo to the right was the view of the square from he doorway going into St. Peter's.  The one below is a deceased Pope inside of St. Peter's.  I don't recall which pope this is.  There were a number of them on display encased in glass.  Most of the photos taken inside of St. Peter's didn't come out too well.  You cannot use flash photography inside so, the movement resulted in a lot of blurred photos.  But here are a few.

After leaving St. Peter's we all gathered back on the bus for the ride back to Cittavecchia to get back on the ship.  By the end of this day I was exhausted.  But still I was able to stay awake on the bus ride back to the ship mostly because of the tour guide who was with us while we were on the bus.  She was a young woman named Georgia and she told us that her name came from the American state of Georgia.  Apparently before she was born her father had visited America and had spent some time in Georgia.  He liked it so much that he named his daughter for the state.  But what I liked so much about it was the way she pronounced her name.  It wasn't the way we say it at all.  It was Jee-Or-Jeah.  It sounded so pretty when she said it.  :-)
Anyway, Georgia answered questions all the way back to Cittavecchia while most people napped and I just couldn't get enough of listening to the accent.

Tomorrow we will visit Naples and the Amalfi Coast.  You're not going to believe these views!  Have a good week!