When we finally arrived at St. Peter’s Square, we were so overwhelmed by the amount of space. Moreover, we were astonished by the fact that we were in Vatican City, finally. The square itself, although it was actually not square but ellipse, was big enough to fit thousands of people. The following pictures are of the square. They speak for themselves.
There were many chairs set up at the foot of St. Peter cathedral itself. This was in preparation for Easter Sunday that was to happen in a few weeks later. At the top and center was a place where the altar and pope would be. We just couldn’t believe our eyes that we were at the presence where the pope would soon be, to address the mass of clergy men and women from cardinals to priests and common believers in the near future.
Before we got into the cathedral, we had to pass a metal detector security point. Also, there was a strict dress code everyone had to adhere to.
After the security logistics had been squared away, we proceed to the foyer of the cathedral.
Once we entered the cathedral, our jaws dropped at the sight of the inside. It was so much more magnificent than ever, and than any other cathedrals or churches we’ve ever seen.
There were many statues of saints, popes, and other religious figures all around the inside of the cathedral.
And there were also many confession boxes on nearly every corner. They were all magnificently made with high quality mahogany wood or the like.
The cathedral floor plan, from how it seemed, looked to be like a cross. At the point of intersection was this grand platform with four decorated pillars and a top that also made our jaws drop. There was an altar there, and this platform was surrounded with many chairs. We assumed that the pope would speak here as well.
This cathedral was also home to past popes. In other words, the cathedral was also a tomb for popes. There were several sections where you can see the body of them.
Some others were in their own rooms where a statue in commemoration of them sit atop the entry way.
And some more could be found on the bottom floor of the cathedral, indicated with a circular decorated metallic cover on the floor with the pope’s name.
There was also a magnificent statue of great importance, not known of what at the moment, since it was protected with glass of perhaps bullet-proofed.
Since this was a cathedral in the holy city, it was only proper to have a service, which it did when we were walking about.
At the other end of the cathedral, at where the top of the cross would be, we saw a section that probably was the greatest ever seen. There was an altar there. But the greatest part was the artistic decoration hanging behind the altar. There was an empty seat, perhaps for Jesus Christ, with two popes on its sides. Above it was this grand, golden collection of little angels with clouds and sun streaks. And finally, the middle of that was a golden glass window from which the sunlight shone through, and the middle-most yet was a bird, perhaps to indicate the Holy Spirit.
On the way back to where we came in there was a section for praying. Overwhelmed and extremely happy that we were here in Vatican City, we decided that it would be most appreciative to the opportunity bestowed upon us, for the trip so far and of the next few days. There was no camera shooting allowed, for obvious reasons, but the praying room was also magnificent. Afterwards, we exited the cathedral with a sensation of uplifted spirit and calmness.
Outside, in the direction of the exit, we saw a couple of Vatican City guards. They wore a ridiculously, colorful clown-like costume. Due to the laws of Vatican City, where guns are prohibited, these guards had only swords as their weapon. Most probably they were trained on how to handle such weaponry. Nonetheless, swords cannot stop a bullet, so the extra security would be needed by the city of Rome and perhaps the Italian army themselves, if needed.
Our next sightseeing stop was the Spanish Steps, famous in several Hollywood movies. What they were, one might need to research themselves. But here are pictures of it.
Since we didn’t get to go into the Coliseum yesterday, we decided to do so today as we had much more time. We took the metro to the Coliseum, where the stop was directly right in front of it. As we walked towards the main entrance, we came across four men dressed in what I thought was poorly put together Ancient Roman costumes. Even an amateur film would choose a more convincing costume than these guys. But I decided to aim my camera at them anyway. Upon doing so, these guys noticed us and asked if we wanted pictures with them. We really had thought it was harmless. We weren’t sure if they were just doing it to make tourists feel welcomed and immersed into the Roman history or not. But of course, we ended up acting naïve and went along with their suggestion. We took only three pictures. Out of four of them, only three posed for and with us, since one of them had to be the one to take the pictures. All that, and they actually charged us 20 Euros. Three pictures, 20 €! Absurd! They were big guys, so we had to comply in order to avoid a Roman beating, at worst. So we paid them. For a good couple hours after that I kept thinking about how we got swindled over stupid pictures of them, which we could’ve snapped from a distant. Sure our pictures had them looking at the camera, but I could care less. And they charged us? 20 €, no less. These guys probably didn’t even have better things to do. Geez.
We got to the entranced and went straight right in, since we had the Roma Pass purchased yesterday. We went to the arena level first. We were a bit surprised to see that the arena was mostly jagged. We had imagined that there was a flat area where gladiators fought long before. There was a small portion of this flat area, but it was convincingly built in our time.
As we walked around, before we went to the upper level, we took some pictures of Coliseum’s stairs, walls and any other that intrigued our eyes.
Once on the upper level, we got a better view of the inside of the Coliseum.
After a few more minutes of indulging in the view of the Coliseum, we headed back down and out of this awesome protocol of modern sport stadiums. We headed towards the city of Ancient Rome which was only a few yards away.
We passed under the senate archway.
And we got our first look of a part of this ancient city.
We headed up into Palatino, a place where wealthy Romans in those ancient times would spend their moments overlooking the ancient city. We wanted to see this view for ourselves.
Even when we were not yet at the topmost, we had already a breathtaking glance of the ancient city.
But of course, once at the top the view was unparallel.
We walked around in Palatino for a bit more before we decided to head out of the ancient city and into the modern, or at least closer to the current time. We headed towards Piazza Venezia, where a grand, white building called Mon. A Vittorio Manuele II was.
We went to a café that gave us a view of the front of Mon. A Vittorio Manuele II, and we had ourselves a rather steep snack and café lattes. But for the price, it was quite satisfying.
We needed to deal with the train reservation for Rome-to-Bordeaux train ride. So we collected ourselves and headed to the hotel to get the ticket and train schedule, then we headed over to Termini.
In the midst of reserving, we found that there was no possible train to go from Nice to Bordeaux, provided that we’d take the train rides from Rome to Genova, then Genova to Nice, as originally planned. I wanted that route because that gave us the view of the Mediterranean Sea along the west coasts of Italy and southern France. Moreover, that route would’ve provided us a chance to stop at Monaco, Nice, Marseille, and Toulouse, if it were all possible. But alas, the plan was changed to an overnight train ride from Rome straight to Paris, where then we’d have to transfer over to a different train in order to go to Bordeaux.
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