16 October ’05, Sunday.
“Come on, we’ve got to be there by 10:30”…(we understood that the Pope was going to make his Sunday appearance). The train was full of people heading for St Peters Basilica, and when we got off, it seemed like the whole world had arrived. As we made our way to the Piazza St Pietro (in front of the Basilica), we noticed that most of the people were in fact heading into St Peters. Well, we found a spot that we thought would be a good spot to see the Pope, so we settled in. It wasn’t long that we found that we were a little early, like 2 hours, so we decided to head out for a while, and then come back. In coming back and finding our spot still available, we settled in to see the Sunday blessing and message of the Pope. Following that, we joined the throng and went in to see St. Peters ourselves. This is known as “the richest and greatest church on earth”, and when you visit it, you come out with the same feeling. Our heads were almost fused in the position of looking up after spending hours inside. Just inside the main entrance we found Michelangelo’s “Pieta”. There is no doubt that I could re-write all the books that we have read and put them here, but right now I just want to say that visiting St. Peters Basilica was and will be one of the highlights of our journey to Europe. We were in hopes of getting to the dome of St Peters, but it was closed. Thankful that we will be in Rome a few more days, we all said “we’ll be back”… Looking at our books and a map, we decided to walk over to see Castle Angelo, or also known as Hadrians Tomb. This was originally built as a tomb for the emperor, Hadrian. In the middle ages it was used as a castle, prison and place for the popes to take refuge in. It was interesting to know that during the Roman times, there could be no “tomb”, not even fort the emperor’s, that could be built within the walls of Rome. So to counter that, he had it built across the River Tiber and built it high enough that all of Rome could see it no matter where they stood. Dinner time…it is amazing just how fast time gets away from us, so off we go, back to “Bumble Bee” and our dinner. Tomorrow is just a few hours away, and we will be back to continue Rome.
“Come on, we’ve got to be there by 10:30”…(we understood that the Pope was going to make his Sunday appearance). The train was full of people heading for St Peters Basilica, and when we got off, it seemed like the whole world had arrived. As we made our way to the Piazza St Pietro (in front of the Basilica), we noticed that most of the people were in fact heading into St Peters. Well, we found a spot that we thought would be a good spot to see the Pope, so we settled in. It wasn’t long that we found that we were a little early, like 2 hours, so we decided to head out for a while, and then come back. In coming back and finding our spot still available, we settled in to see the Sunday blessing and message of the Pope. Following that, we joined the throng and went in to see St. Peters ourselves. This is known as “the richest and greatest church on earth”, and when you visit it, you come out with the same feeling. Our heads were almost fused in the position of looking up after spending hours inside. Just inside the main entrance we found Michelangelo’s “Pieta”. There is no doubt that I could re-write all the books that we have read and put them here, but right now I just want to say that visiting St. Peters Basilica was and will be one of the highlights of our journey to Europe. We were in hopes of getting to the dome of St Peters, but it was closed. Thankful that we will be in Rome a few more days, we all said “we’ll be back”… Looking at our books and a map, we decided to walk over to see Castle Angelo, or also known as Hadrians Tomb. This was originally built as a tomb for the emperor, Hadrian. In the middle ages it was used as a castle, prison and place for the popes to take refuge in. It was interesting to know that during the Roman times, there could be no “tomb”, not even fort the emperor’s, that could be built within the walls of Rome. So to counter that, he had it built across the River Tiber and built it high enough that all of Rome could see it no matter where they stood. Dinner time…it is amazing just how fast time gets away from us, so off we go, back to “Bumble Bee” and our dinner. Tomorrow is just a few hours away, and we will be back to continue Rome.