On Thursday, we ate a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, and again rode the shuttle into the city.
We toured St. Peter's Basilica which is the main part that people think of when they think of the Vatican. Vatican City is a city and country of it's own, and the gates are guarded by soldiers of the Swiss army guard. St. Peter's is a massive cathedral at the back of a plaza surrounded by arcs of columns. In the center of the plaza are 2 fountains and a statue.
To enter St. Peters is free, but you do have to pass through metal detectors. The inside of the building is much like the other cathedrals we visited in Rome, but larger and in some areas more ornate. The side corridors contain many small chapels, each with its own dedication. The artwork on the walls and domed ceilings of these chapels centers around its dedication. Some of the chapels are actually tombs for previous popes or royalty.
In the middle front area of the cathedral is the staircase going down to St. Peter's tomb. It is covered by a massive sculptured structure, like a tent but without fabric. The very front area is the altar and its decoration and is where the masses are performed. We happened to be there right at noon while they were performing a mass for a group of American students from many different states. We stood at the back of the seated areas for about 10 minutes to see what it was about. One of the priests sang something in Latin (I assume), and they had several readers of scripture, who surprisingly, were women. I didn't expect that. Also, one of the scripture sections that was read was from 1st Maccabeus and was about courage.
The architecture and artwork were truly magnificent, especially since in America we can't seem to build buildings that last more than 50 years without looking decrepit.
The Vatican museums were closed on Thursday, so we decided to see more of the sites we'd missed the day before.
We walked down the street in front of St. Peter's to Castle St. Angelo, which was built by Roman Emperor Hadrian to serve as a mausoleum for himself and his family. It is a cylindrical building and still has the original ramp that the Roman's built to go up into the courtyard areas. The castle also has great views from its walls of all the surrounding areas, including St. Peter's Basilica.
We then walked across the river to more piazzas and more small churches.
At the end of the day, we ate a meal I've been craving ever since my trip with the HU chorus to Australia and New Zealand. Turkish Kebabs. I'm going to write a whole other blog post to describe them, because I like them so much. Then for dessert, we went to the bakery next door to the kebab shop, and I got a cannoli filled with delicious marscarpone cheese cream filling. It was very delicious. Barry had a delicious, and heavy, lemon tart.
We were still enjoying Rome, and still had so much to see.
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