7/7 - Rome (Part 1)
This was the day of the pilgrimage to the Pope.
Obelisk in St Peter's Square
Fountain in St Peter's Square
St Peter's Square
The original stitch was sucky despite anything I did (the sides were slanted so
people would be falling down and the building collapsing), so I moved to a much better (free) product.
Basilica
Side of Square
Unfortunately there are a few 'ghosts', but that's what happens when you stitch. The commercial product once again fouled up - maybe the holy power of the Pope was affecting it.
Swiss guards. We could only take it from afar, but not from the foot of the steps.
Entrance to St Peter's
Nave of St Peter's
Mosaic decorative cycle: Coronation of the Virgin and Fall of Lucifer, 1746
Sculpture
Mosaic work (?). Transfiguration of Christ on Mt Tabor, 1767. Copy of 1520.
I don't know why so many of the paintings inside were copies.
The treasury was only open at 9am. Luckily I didn't come at 7. There was a lot of good Byzantine stuff, like one with fragments of the cross, 6-7th century, and one 578 AD Vatican cross from Justin II.
There was a "Torturare i Cristiani" - an instrument allegedly used to torture Jesus.
St Luke reliquary
This allegedly contains the skull of St Luke
Gold plated spherical handwarmers
Tomb of Sixtus IV, 1493
Unfortunately there were guards swarming the entrance chamber with the 2 Byzantine relics.
Bernini Angel, Clay. 1673.
Papal Tiara
The triple crowns are a symbol of the Trinity and 3 dominons of the church
Hammer and trowel used to open/close the Saict (? - probably Holy) Door of the Vatican Basilica
Sculpture
I think this was a chapel, since the rear of the basilica was closed off
St Helena
Altar
St Peter, whose foot you're supposed to rub. I went for the less worn out one.
John XXIII. For some reason his tomb was very popular, more so than those of other popes in the basilica proper.
Michelangelo's Pieta. There was a barricade erected very far from the thing, and there was a large crowd.
Tomb of John Paul II
St Peter's tomb
Pius XI
Court Jesters
Andrew and I were both wondering if the water coming from the drinking fountains in Vatican City was Holy Water.
I found this sign hilarious - "The old, the suffering and the cardiopatic people". Probably a translational issue. My feet were hurting, so did I count as one of the suffering?
There were 551 steps up - the most I've ever undertaken, I think. One of the final staircases even had a rope hanging from the roof for support.
Dome
Gardens from Cupola
St Peter's Square from Cupola
Rome from Cupola
Me and Andrew on Cupola
Just below the Cupola (the level of the base of the Dome) there were the first squat toilets I'd seen in Europe (though I saw them on one or two other occasions).
Exiting St Peter's, we were hungry and wanted lunch. The ripoff vans that you see near tourist attractions were calling to us, but we knew they'd give us bad food at high prices so we dug some more. Walking a bit, we saw a street down which there was a shop, the steps outside of which a lot of people (including the all important barometer: locals) were sitting on and eating pizza, so we went there. Like other good pizza joints (Vatican museums excluded), they sold pizza in units of 100g and cut from a rectangular pan (as opposed to the circular shape that non-Italians are familiar with). I had at least 2 types of pizza, and stole some of Andrew's; one type I had had potato pieces and herbs as topping - for some reason I always thought potato on pizza was an American thing.
Almost all the pizza I had in Rome had no tomato sauce, but all of them had cheese; in fact I think I prefer those without tomato sauce, prostate cancer notwithstanding. The crust was especially wonderful - not so thick as to be soggy but still thick enough to have body (unlike someone's); chewy and yet crunchy at the same time. I did have thin-crust pizza in one or two places outside of Rome (I can't remember which), but I still think the Roman pizzas were the best in terms of crust. Italian pizza is also comparatively sparse in the number of toppings - some had only 1 topping [cheese and tomato don't count], most had 2-3 and 4-5 were rare. Truly, even Italian pizza made by Italians outside of Italy cannot compare to anything within Italy (though needless to say the ripoff vans surely suck) - this is what happens when there's no competition and people don't know the standard their pizza should have.