It was not as hard to get up this morning as we thought it might be, we had stayed up pretty late last night, and were really tired by the time we got to bed about midnight, local time. We slept very soundly.
We set the alarm for 6:30 AM so we could go to St. Peter’s Basilica near the opening time so that we could avoid some of the lines. We had our reservation to make the procession to the Holy Door at 10:00 AM, but we wanted to try and go to the special Pilgrimage Mass at 9:00 AM. When we talked with the couple from Texas yesterday, they had indicated that there were not really any lines in the morning to enter St. Peter’s through the Holy Doors, so we opted to go early and see if it was possible to enter, and if so, we would not wait until our 10:00 AM reservation time. Plus, we could attend the mass at 9:00 AM and not worry about being late for our reservation.
We did not really get going until about 8:00 AM, we were slow getting ready, and needed to eat our breakfast that was placed in a basket outside of our door. The breakfast consisted of various pastries and some rolls, and we had butter and a neat little espresso machine in the room that uses something similar to K-cups, but it is much smaller and is served in tiny glass mugs.
Next, we had to walk to the metro station, ride for about 7 minutes, and then walk another several blocks to St. Peter’s Square.
There was only a short line for the security screening, and we were at the Holy Door at about 8:40 AM. We walked inside the Basilica through the Holy Doors, and started looking for information on the Mass at 9:00 AM. It was supposed to be in the front, at the center Altar. When we asked about the 9:00 AM Mass, we were instructed to go to the normal side chapel that is used for daily masses, which was not what we expected, but we went anyway.
After the Mass was over, we were walking to the front of the Basilica, and we noticed groups of people coming into St. Peters, being led by someone carrying a wooden cross. We asked one of the ushers about this and we found out that these were the groups being led from the Sant’ Angelo Castle, which was where we were supposed to meet for our 10:00 AM reservation to the Holy Doors.
We then were able to find out that there is a structured procession to St. Peter’s and that the groups stop along the way to say some special prayers as part of the Pilgrimage procession.
We were a little disappointed that we had forgone this in order to attend what we thought was a special mass at 9:00 AM, that turned out to just be a regular mass that is conducted hourly. In addition, about 30 minutes later, we then saw that there was a special Mass for Pilgrims, at the front altar in St. Peter’s, but it was obviously at a different time than my research online had indicated, so we were once again a little disappointed.
We had tried to do a plan, but in the end, due to uncertainties and obvious schedule changes, we were thwarted in our attempts to do what we had wanted. We did not ponder the question too long, as Jimmy Buffett would have said, and we went about our business.
We went to the Sacristy and found the gift shop so we could purchase a small vial for holy water. Stephanie had wanted to get holy water from the Sacristy on our last visit here three years ago, but it had been closed, and we had to fill our bottle from the holy water font outside that was used by everyone. This time, we were able to have the attendant go back to the Sacristy and fill it for us, which was cleaner than the general font being used by everyone outside.
We visited the gift shop outside the Basilica to purchase a crucifix to place near our laundry room door, and a few other items that Stephanie picked out. Afterwards, we headed to the crypt area under St. Peter’s to see the burial vaults for many of the past popes. It was not open as much as it had been on our previous tours, which was also the case for inside of St. Peter’s. Many areas were roped off for what appeared to be crowd control, which was disappointing. On our past visits, almost the entire interior of the Basilica was open, but many areas, including the access to the main altar, were barricaded off this time, surely due to security for the Year of Mercy celebration. It was a little ironic, to expect to have many more visitors to the Basilica, but then have to close of many areas because of crowd control or security, lessening the overall visitation experience.
By this time it had become very crowded inside the Basilica, the tour groups were in full force, and it was tiring to move around. We decided that we were finished in St. Peter’s and headed to the exit. By this time, it was raining outside, and the line to go through security was very long. We had made sure we were finished with everything we had wanted to do inside because once we exited, the only way to re-enter was to get back into line with the throngs that had now gathered.
We headed into the square outside and took some pictures, even though it was raining. The rain and clouds added to the overall effect, it was a little ominous.
We headed down through the square towards the Castel Sant Angelo to go there for the tour. We had never been to the castle on a previous visit, and the entry was the second free entry we had decided to use on our Roma Pass. On the way to the castle, which was probably about a mile away, it really started to rain, and even thunder. Even with our rain gear and our umbrellas, we were getting a little wet from the heavy rain.
We went into the castle and got our entry ticket, and headed inside to do the touring. It was pretty interesting to read about the history of the castle which had originally been built as a burial grounds for roman emperors, but then had been converted to a military fort and then used for refuge by one of the popes during some insurrections in Italy.
The rain appeared to be tapering off by the time we finished at the castle, so we headed outside to catch a bus to go to the Pantheon. We found our bus stop and were on our way. We got off at our bus stop and headed to the Pantheon, or so we thought. We missed our turn somewhere and ended up taking the long route there. It had cleared up some by this time and the sun had actually started to come out.
We were really hungry and found a small deli/restaurant in the piazza at the Pantheon and went inside to have lunch. They had great sandwiches, and a liter of house red wine was Euro 7.50. They also had lot of samples of cheese and meats to taste, and a really nice bathroom. We took our extended lunch there, and by the time we finished, it was once again raining outside.
We had wanted to visit the Pantheon in the rain because of the large opening in the dome, which of course lets rain in during a rainstorm. It was interesting to see the rainfall enter and be contrasted against the dark interior of the ceiling, but be reflecting the sky light from the opening in the dome. There are drains in the floor to take care of the rain, but the area is closed off for safety, rain and marble floors do not mix, it is VERY slippery.
After a brief visit in the Pantheon, we headed over to the Piazza Navona, which is normally bustling with artists and art sellers. However, with the rain, there were just a couple of vendors there today. However, the fountains in the Piazza were running, and this had not been the case the last time we were here, the fountains were all under repair and were turned off. Not much beauty in a dry fountain. We also visited the church that is on the Piazza.
Next, we walked the several blocks over to the Trevi Fountain, to see it in more daylight than we had yesterday. Of course, even with the rain, it was very crowded, but we still found some room to get some good pictures in the front of the fountain. There is also a church at the fountain, so we walked inside and visited there. All of the churches have beautiful altars and ceilings, some more ornate than others, but still nice to see and admire their beauty.
We had really been heading to the Metro Station nearest to the fountain so that we could go south and visit the third Papal Basilica, The Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. It was about 5:30 PM when we arrived there, and there was no one in line to go into the church. We went through the security and entered through that Basilica’s Holy Door.
It was nice to be visiting without a lot of crowds, by this time, all of the tours had departed, and there were just a few visitors inside. It was difficult to take pictures that late in the day, especially since it was cloudy from the rain. There was not much natural sunlight entering the windows to provide illumination for pictures. The churches are so large, and they do not have a lot of lights inside, having been built in the era of candles.
We then headed across the street to the Scala Santa, or Holy Stairs, which has the 28 marble steps from Pontius Pilate’s residence in Jerusalem, that were moved here in 326 AD by Emperor Constantine’s mother.
The original stone steps steps are covered in wood, and there are small glass covered openings to show the areas where the blood drops from Jesus fell as he was led up the steps to be sentenced by Pontius Pilate. These steps can only be climbed on your knees, and since it was late in the evening, just before closing, there were only a few people on the steps, so we climbed them saying prayers at each step.
Afterwards, we went back across the street and took some photos of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano with the exterior lighting on since it was almost dark. We then walked back to the Metro station and rode the metro to Termini Station and changed trains to go to the stop closest to our hotel, which was also right near our favorite restaurant. They were not quite open yet, it was 7:20 PM, and they did not open until 7:30 PM, but seated us anyway. We had another wonderful meal, I had gnocchi with meat sauce, and Stephanie had a Pasta with mushrooms. We enjoyed a liter of their red house wine with our meal.
After dinner, we decided to head back over to St. Peter’s for some nighttime photos. We had all of the camera gear with us already, so we did not have to walk back to the hotel. We hoped back on the Metro and headed to Termini Station to catch the bus for the ride over.
We first got off near the Castle di Angelo for some nighttime pictures of it and the Tiber River, with St. Peter’s Dome in the distance. Unfortunately, while we were riding the bus, it had started to rain again, and it was raining even harder by the time we got the camera and tripod set up. Luckily, we still had our raingear from earlier in the day. We headed over to St. Peter’s Square, which was about 4 blocks from the Castle. We certainly did not have to worry about any people in the pictures, there were hardly any other people out in the now heavy rainfall.
We took the photos, using both our rain gear and umbrellas to try and stay dry, and keep the camera gear dry. About the time we finished taking pictures, the rain subsided as we walked to the nearest Metro stop for the ride home, once again getting off at the Termini Train Station for the walk to the hotel.
It was about 10:30 PM, and we had put in a full day, a lot of it in the rain, but thankfully, there were periods where it had been dry.