36,000 Steps
What a day! The
most steps we have done in 1 day the entire trip. Start the day
with a croissant and coffee at the little shop around the corner from
us, our AIRBNB provides us with a free breakfast here, so a nice way
to start the day.
So many churches
as we walk along. Our first real stop is at Basilica of San Giovanni
in Laterano, another Papal church with a Jubilee door. We are lucky
again that there is no line up at all, it is before 10AM. I had a
reserved time spot, but did not even need to show my ticket online,
and there was no lineup for security. The security inside the church
had Templar on their sleeves, I’m sure Andre will be researching
that more. It is also Palm Sunday, here you are not given Palm
leaves, you are given Olive branches. We stayed for rest of the
service, we had missed the beginning, but with it being in Italian we
don’t get a lot out of it anyway. Communion done by hand, or the
priest will put it on your tongue if you want, no wine/juice
distributed. Since we missed the offering being taken up we decided
to pay to go and visit the cloister. I’m sure it would be much
more impressive when the gardens are all in bloom, but still pretty.
The pillars were amazing, with some beautiful mosaic tiles on some of
the pillars.
Pretty much
across the street is the Pontificio Santuario della Scala Sancta.
Here there are 3 sets of stairs, we did not do the ones that you
keened on the way up. According to tradition 28 steps were moved from
Jerusalem to Rome, and these were the steps that Jesus climbed
several times on the day of his death sentence. A church service was
going at the little church on top, we caught the very end. Many nuns
attending this service.
After the
service we headed outside and the lineups are huge to get into the
Church across the street or through security. We sure came at the
right time.
We continued on
with our walk and came across the Lateran Egyptian Obelisk, Rome is
the city with the most Obelisk in the world. This one is from
15Century BCE.
Andre is giving
us his walking tour right now, we find the Opera House in Rome,
perhaps the most disappointing structure we have seen. Expected
something grand, it is anything but grand.
4 Fountains
Street is where streets intersect and on each of the 4 corners there
is a beautiful fountain, much more impressive than the Opera House.
Now we are at
the Spanish Steps. Again I was a little underwhelmed. I seemed to
remember flowers on the stairs, and the fountain right now at the
bottom is pretty much all covered, so you can’t see much of it, so
another disappointment. At the top of the steps there is an Obelisk,
so that as always was impressive to see. Sallustian Obelisk is a
copy of an Egyptian Obelisk
We walked the
length of Via Del Corso next, a street that we will never be able to
shop on, except window shopping.
We walked along
the Tiber River. A few boat tours going on, not sure how much you
would see as the river banks are incredibly high. We had nice views
walking along, crossed over to St. Peters Square.
Lots and lots of
chairs set up outside for Palm Sunday. Trucks are coming out now to
clean up the Olive branches. I am still carrying mine from the
service this morning, but twice I was asked where I got them so was
able to share with others, not so much for me to carry now.
We had booked a
time to go through the Jubilee door here, this one we needed the time
booked for, it was very very busy. Somehow we missed where we were
supposed to register and do a pilgrimage walk with others behind a
cross to the Basilica. Right outside the Basilica there were some
pilgrim security for the line to go in and I showed her my phone and
they let us right in without doing the walk. It would have been nice
to do the walk with others, but we were glad we didn’t need to
backtrack. It is so impressive inside. Absolutely massive. They
have lines set up that you go through to eventually get to the
Jubilee door. It was a little confusing, but we did eventually find
your way. You could spend hours in here looking around, it is bigger
and more impressive then you can ever imagine.
One of the most
famous pieces we got to see was Michelangelo’s "The Pieta"
The Carrara marble structure shows Jesus after his crucifixion, on
the lap of Mother Mary. Many people lined up for pictures here.
From here we finally make our way through the Jubilee door. Andre
and I have a pact that if either of us are still around in 25 more
years when the doors are open again we need to go to Rome and think
of this trip we had together. We would definitely be hiring a
private driver, not so many steps would be done!
Outside the
Swiss guards are standing guard inside a fenced in area. I ask if I
can come show one of them my phone, first he says no, then he tells
me to come in. I show him a picture of our nephew Glen in full dress
in Ottawa as a Canadian Grenadier Guard. We have a conversation about
which uniform would be hotter in the summer lol.
Next up is
Neptune fountain in Navona square, I love seeing all the fountains.
Then on to Fountain of the 4 major rivers, 1 per continent is
represented.
Largo di Torre
Argentina archaeological site close to where Julius Caesar was
killed, also home to a colony of cats, was our last visit for this
part of the day, we still have a 2 hour free walking tour to do!
It was another
great tour. Our tour guide was American, but has lived in Italy for
over 40 years. This is one tour guide that we had no problem
understanding, she still had her American accent.
We also visited
the Trevi Fountain, unbelievable how many people were there. They
now have a line up during the day so only 300 people can enter at a
time to cut down on so many people visiting at once. No way would we
have made it through the line up to visit and throw a coin in. Good
thing we did it last visit. Visited more churches of course, and
were outside the Pantheon. The Pantheon now has an admission fee,
last time we were here it was free to enter.
We also learnt
how to drink from a fountain in Rome, you plug the hole at the
bottom, and the water squirts out from a small hole on top and you
drink from that small hole. The only place we were told that works
like this in Italy.
Our tour guide
recommended a spot for dinner and we had heard about this same place
from someone else. Ladies are making pasta at the entrance. It is
some sort of chain restaurant, we saw a few more around town, called
Osteria Da Fortunata. One of our best dinners in Italy.
Walking back
home and went by Trevi Fountain, crowds are not much less, but the
ropes are down now so it is a free for all to get down to where you
can throw a coin.
It was a great
day, so so tired when we got back to the apartment, a lot of walking.
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| Our Airbnb provided with coupons for a pastry and coffee at the cafe next to our place. Croissant with a pistachio cream filling and a cappuccino |
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| Most church are older than this one even if this one is built in 1896-1914. |
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| Love the decoration on this one |
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Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, immense 500 feet by 250 feet and probably over 100 in height.
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| The main door |
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| The Jubilee door |
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The Jubilee door
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| The alter |
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| The whole place was like this |
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| The cloister with the amazing pillars some of them with mosaic tiles |
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| The main doors are immense |
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Pontificio Santuario della Scala Sancta |
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| Pontificio Santuario della Scala Sancta. There were 3 sets of stairs, we did not do the ones that you kneeled on the way up. According to tradition 28 steps were moved from Jerusalem to Rome, and these were the steps that Jesus climbed several times on the day of his death sentence. |
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| We got there at the end of the service |
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Lateran Egyptian Obelisk, Rome is the city with the most Obelisk in the world |
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| A celebration in the park near us, the food looked delicious |
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Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major |
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| We made a detour but not too interesting |
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| At an intersection of the 4 fountains street. 4 great fountains |
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| Spanish steps from the top |
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| The fountain under repair |
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| The main high end shopping street with a view of the Spanish Steps |
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| The courthouse |
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| The San Angelo castle, Not sure if you would see much as the walls are so tall |
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| The Vatican, lots of people here |
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| St Peter's square |
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| The main part of the church from the entrance. the church is 900 feet long |
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| Amazing dome, all mosaic |
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| The Jubilee door |
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| Michelangelo "The Pieta" The Carrara marble structure shows Jesus after his crucifixion, on the lap of Mother Mary |
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| Just so much to see, you could spend the whole day here |
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| Wendy showing the swiss guard picture of our nephew Glen in full dress in Ottawa as a Canadian Grenadier Guard. Notice the olive branch she is carrying, no Palms here in Rome on Palm Sunday |
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| One last view of St Peter's square |
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| Neptune fountain in Navona square |
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| Fountain of the 4 major rivers, 1 per continent |
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Largo di Torre Argentina archaeological site close to where Julius Caesar was killed, also home to a colony of cats, did not see any. |
On our walking tour
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