St. Peter's Basilica

We went from the Sistene Chapel to the doors of St. Peter's and visited the Pieta (Michelangelo used his Mother's face as the model for Mary), the statue of St. Peter which aha been kissed so many times that his toes have disappeared, the Pope's altar, the dove window, the 5 foot high letters on the wall, the mosaics and finally we had some free time and we decided, as a group, that we would like to see John Paul II's tomb. Cristina accompanied us to the crypt and identified most of the tombs. Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II have very simple plain tombs. Pope John XXIII is considered to be an incorruptible and his glass tomb is the basilica.

No trip to the Vatican would be complete without a visit to the Vatican store. Many crosses, rosaries, and medals made the trip across the square to be blessed by the Pope!

We left the Vatican by way of Castelangelo and the bridge across the Tiber. We walked from there to the Pantheon. It was an ancient temple converted to a Catholic church. The central oculus is the only source of light in the church and, although the church looks huge from the outside, it actually has a fairly small interior. Then we had a few minutes for those last items that we so desperately need before we headed off for our last supper in Europe.

We visited the Pantheon,  one of the oldest complete Roman sites. It evolved from a Roman temple to a Catholic Church in the 600s. Raffaele, Victor Emmanuel and other royals are bured in the church.  The Pantheon is located on the Piazza della Rotunda and we walked from there to the Piazza Navona which is eliptical in shape as it mirrors the putline of an ancient track. Then we did our last Tom tag-a-long back to the coach.