The Religious Experience of St. Peter's, The Ara Pacis, and a Bit About Rome

I may or may not have mentioned this, but earlier in the day when we were passing by St. Peter's square on our way to the Vatican Museum there was some sort of catholic ceremony going on out in front of the basilica, and the Pope came out and blessed the crowd. Once we came out of the Vatican Museum and into the light of day we followed a line of people which took us through some passages under the basilica where several popes were buried. It was all cool and quiet and the whole place was made out of marble. I didn't recognize most of the names on the tombs, but then we reached a group of nuns and priests standing silently across from one of the tombs and we looked to see who it was. It was John Paul II! I really wasn't expecting to see his tomb. there was a guard watching it and everything. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures down there but once we emerged into the light of day again I was back in business.


It was so surreal actually walking up to the entrance to St. Peter's. It was so huge, but the inside was even more amazing.


I mean just look at that. The pictures don't even do it justice.


With the light streaming in from the dome you really couldn't help but feel a deep sense of wonder and some sort of stirring of religious emotion.


Every inch of the interior was elaborately decorated with gold and bright colors. Even though I was with a couple of others from my group none of us said anything for a long time. We just tried to take it all in. I went with my roommate Katherine, who is catholic, into a curtained off side chapel where everyone was dead silent and praying in front of an incredibly elaborate gold alter. Once we left Katherine informed me that that was something called adoration, which I must admit I still don't fully understand.


This is the entrance into the ancient crypts where St. Peter is supposedly buried right in front of the high alter.

The canopy over it is made of bronze, and like pretty much everything else having to do with the Vatican it was made by Bernini. I love the intricate foliage on the columns and even the way the columns are twisty instead of straight. Bernini's just great really.


There was so much to look at, and everything was so big. This is a statue of St. Veronica which I love because it's so full of movement.


Absolutely gorgeous mosaic work all over the ceiling and walls.


There were also lots of very elaborate tombs like this one. It was really hard to tell who they were for though, and I don't know who this one belongs to. I just thought it looked cool.


There was so much to take in at St. Peter's. Everything about it was beautiful beyond words and even now I think it was my favorite place we visited. Eventually, we saw all that we could and a few of us started to head back to the dorms.


We had drunk all of our water and needed to replenish so we joined the locals at one of the millions of fountains scattered about town. This is the quickest and cheapest way to get water in Rome. I was skeptical of it to begin with, but I quickly overcame that because I was so thirsty all the time. The nozzles are all clean and the water is always cold. It tastes good too. I came to love these fountains.


After we got back to the dorms we only had half an hour to rest our extremely sore feet before we had to head back out to the Ara Pacis Augustae. This is Latin for the Altar of Augustan Peace. Basically it's a giant marble altar that the emperor Augustus built as propaganda for his reign. I've studied the symbolism of this monument so many times it's not funny.


Here's the actual altar on the inside of the structure. This is where animals were sacrificed two millennia ago.


This should give you some idea of just how big this thing is. And it's all made of marble.


It never ceases to amaze me how detailed the carving on these things is. Here is a little lizard among the foliage.


After we left the Ara Pacis we went around the corner to look at the emperor Augustus' mausoleum. Sadly, the site is not well taken care of and is pretty much a trash pit. We were pleasantly distracted though by a series of what looked like modern art projects placed along the fence. They were all either really funny or thought provoking. When I came to the one that you see here (which says "doppelganger") one of my classmates told me to turn around and look behind me.


This is exactly what I saw and it really freaked me out. At first it totally blew my mind and I just kept wondering how in the world someone had managed to recreate a picture they had taken of some random guy. Then someone in my group brought me back to my senses by suggesting that this was probably the man responsible for all the art work. A couple of people went over to talk to him and it turned out that it was all his work. We all thought that it was pretty cool (it reminded me of Austin) and when we came to the end of the exhibit we all chipped in a Euro or two.


From there our professors took us over to the Spanish Steps and through a shopping district that none of us could afford. Once we got to the steps they turned us loose for the day.


I opted not to put myself through the torture of going up so many stairs and instead wandered back to the dorms with a few other girls.


Our route took us through the Piazza del Popolo, which was featured in Dan Brown's Angels and Demons and which contains a huge Egyptian obelisk. I was too tired to stick around and look for any hidden signs of the Illuminati.


We also passed by what had to be the meeting place of all the cats in Rome. This one was right next to the sidewalk, but it didn't seem to like me very much. When I reached out to pet it, it warded me of with a paw.


I spent much of the rest of the walk staring at the ground, so I saw plenty of sewer grates. All the man holes in Rome have SPQR printed on them, which I find amusing. SPQR stands for senatus populusque romanorum (the senate and the people of Rome) which was the main saying of the Roman empire. Since many of the sewers that Rome still uses were actually built by the Ancient Romans I suppose the modern Romans felt the need to pay tribute (though it seems a bit demeaning).


We finally made our way back to the street that St. John's is on. We were all quite hungry so we stopped in at a pizzeria and gelateria for dinner. Because they were so easy to access I ate at these places several more times while in Rome. Above is a picture of what it looked like at the counter in the pizzeria.

Even the street food in Rome is amazing. I topped off my day with some pizza con funghi (aka mushrooms) and delicious chocolate gelato. Then I promptly passed out.