View Article: 091406 St. Peter's Piazza and Basilica

	091406 St. Peter's Piazza and Basilica
	written by kayanna / 10.03.2005

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Itinerary

9 - meet at the Palazzo Pio to walk over to St. Peter's Piazza to view the Basilica

11ish - on own for the rest of the day!

Highlights

After we assembled in front of the Palazzo Pio, we moved to Piazza Farnese to begin our march to St. Peter's Basilica (in italiano: Piazza San Pietro), as pilgrims would have done in the centuries before.

Minh-An, presenting the Piazza and Basilica today, related to us how the pilgrims would have felt approaching the basilica and how this approach was extremely important to Bernini. She pointed out that from the bridge, the Porte S. Angelo - bridge of the angels - we got glimpses of the Vatican, which disappeared again as we neared the end of the bridge. This was intended to increase the excitement for pilgrims nearing their destination.
It was also pointed out that the Castel S. Angelo at the end of the bridge is now a museum and has a wonderful lookout from the top over Rome.

At the basilica, a mass was underway, so we stopped at the temporary gates, where Minh-An likened the heavenly glow from the sun overhead to the heavenliness that is Ritter Sport, in cute little boxes of travel-size goodness.
She elaborated on the shape of the basilica we could see in front of us - the deceptive length (it seems much shorter than it actually is to the buildings of the Vatican), the curving and hug-like arms of the rows of columns, and how these columns eclipse each other when one stands at the center of the radii that make up the piazza. She also pointed out that this site is historic because it stands on what was once Nero's circus, where Peter was crucified.

Some of our group went in for the mass at 10:30, and after the presentation, others went to the museum in the Castel S. Angelo and enjoyed the view.

Later on, a bunch of us went to go buy tickets for the AS Roma soccer game tomorrow night, passing some of Rome's best gelato on the way, of course.

The highlight of the day was hearing about the history regarding the architectural presentation of the World's Smallest Country.

And, if only I'd held on to my postcards until today, I could have sent them by the ever-so-speedy Vatican Post, rather than Italian.

Images

St. Peter's Basilica

One arm of the basilica is evident on the left, and the crowd assembled for the Wednesday morning mass are visible in front of the building.

Proudly displaying AS Roma tickets

We're going to go watch some Italian soccer tomorrow!

photo courtesy of Shawn Wong

Minh-An Giving Her Presentation

We are all captivated by Minh-An's animated explanation of the history of the basilica.

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