Christian Rome

I'm pretty sure I have found my  new favorite church in Europe!!!

Today we explored some of  the major Christian sites of Rome.  Our first tour took us to the Vatican!  Compared to the regular line, which looked about a mile long, since we were with a group, we did not have to wait as long to get in.  We first explored some of the Vatican museum and saw some of the roman sculptures.  After seeing some of those, we went into the Sistine Chapel!!!  This was absolutely breathtaking!!  It is just unbelievable that one person could paint something so spectacular!  The Sistine Chapel is the private chapel of the Pope.  In addition, this is where new popes are elected by the cardinals.  After seeing the Sistine Chapel, we were taken to the massive and beautiful St. Peter's Basilica.  This is the largest church in the world.  In addition, three saints, including St. Peter and St. Jude are buried in this Basilica.  On May 1, 2011 Pope John Paul II will be buried on the top floor within this Basilica and he will be beatified.  This Basilica also contains the original Pieta which was sculpted by Michelangelo.  St. Peter's has many more details, but you just cannot see them all since it is so big.  It is just absolutely beautiful and is probably my favorite part of Rome.

Our second tour took us to some of the other major religious sites around Rome.  First stop was at St. John Lateran Basilica.  This is one of the four major basilicas of Rome and is the Cathedral of the Church of Rome.  In addition, it is the first church in the world to be built.  Furthermore, it used to be the official seat of the bishop of Rome, who is the Pope.  I found it interesting that this church contains the skulls of St. Peter and St. Paul.  Outside of St. John Lateran is a small building.  This building houses the "Holy Stairs".  These stairs were transported from Jerusalem and are known to be the steps that Jesus was condemned by Pilate and scourged on.  If you want to climb these steps, it must be done on your knees, and you say a prayer at each step.  It take approximately an hour to make it to the top.

 The second stop of the day was at the catacombes.  The catacombes are underground burial sites.  When walking through the catacombes, you can see spaces in the walls that were used as tombs.  There are no longer bones in these burial sites, since visitors would try and steal the bones to take as a souvenir. 

The last stop of the day was at the Basilica Of Santa Maria Maggiore.  This is a basilica dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  This basilica hold the pieces of wood that is known to be part of the holy manger that baby Jesus laid in.

To end the day, we had another delicious Italian dinner.   I really enjoyed my time in Rome, and I'm glad I got to see as much as I did, even though we were on many tours that lasted all day.  Tomorrow, at 11:00am, we have a private car transfer to Sorrento, Italy.  Sorrento is located on the coast.  I'm excited to see the Mediterranean.  Ciao!!!