Rome Part 1

We spent two days in hot, crazy, dusty, dirty, loud, and spectacularly amazing Roma.
Our hotel was right beside Vatican city and so the very first night I walked under the  Passetto di Borgo which is looks like an old city wall, but actually has a secret 2,600 feet passageway from Vatican City to the Castel Sant'Angelo, that several popes have used as an emergency escape route.

I was so excited to see the Bascilica of St Peter, something I had only ever seen in movies and pictures. Luckily I waited until evening to actually go in as the queues during the day were mad!

Massive scale! The alter and below this, the tomb of St Peter, "Peter is here"

Micelangeo's Pieta. Hard to believe he could have made such a beautiful sculpture at only 25 years of age!

The keys of heaven and authority on earth; "Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Door of death depicting the deaths of  Saint Peter, Pope John XXIII, Saint Stephen, and Pope Gregory VII

The papal balcony from below

The Pontifical Swiss Guard

Aside from Vatican city, we visited the other sights of Rome over the two days. First stop was the Colosseum. Of course!

Magnificence of engineering. Hard to believe how old it actually is!

The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine

Romulus and Remus were said to have been found on the Palatine Hill by the she-wolf who nursed and raised them. Legend holds that Romulus went on to found Rome.