Next, we visited Santa Maria della Vittoria. The main attraction at this church is the masterpiece, the Ecstasy of St. Teresa by the famous sculptor, Bernini. The statue depicts a moment described by Saint Teresa of Avila in her autobiography, where she had the vivid vision of an angel piercing her heart with a golden shaft, causing her both immense joy and pain. Notice the flowing robes and contorted posture of St. Teresa which really portray the ecstasy she describes of.
Third on the agenda was the Capuchin Franciscan Boneyard Church where the bones of many Capuchin monks are arranged in different patterns such as cross, floral, arch, circle, and triangles of a six-roomed crypt. A large clock located in the last chamber represents the idea that time has no beginning or end. This was a pretty incredible work of art by an anonymous Capuchin. Some of the students thought it was pretty weird and rightly so, it’s not exactly normal. No doubt, it was pretty amazing though! It is said that the Capuchin monks fled to the Capuchin Church of the Immaculate Conception in Rome to escape the French Revolution.
The Spanish Steps were our next stop - the longest and widest staircase in Europe. It was built as a monument and named for the Bourbon Spanish Embassy to the Holy See located in the piazza below.
Then we headed to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, translated as the Basilica of Saint Mary above Minerva. This church is one of the most important churches of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome, Italy and considered the only Gothic church in Rome. In it are the tombs of St. Catherine of Siena and the Dominican painter Fra Angelico. Also, the church contains the Cristo della Minerva, also known as Christ the Redeemer or Christ Carrying the Cross: a marble sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti. The first picture below is the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena and the second picture is Buonarroti's Christ Carrying the Cross:
The Pantheon was our next stop. Here's a blurb I found about it: “The Pantheon is a magnificent ancient temple in Rome that was later converted into the church of Santa Maria ad Martyrs. Dating from 125 AD, this is the most complete ancient building in Rome and one of the city's most spectacular sights. Until the 20th century, the Pantheon was the largest concrete structure in the world. Michelangelo studied its great dome before starting work on the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Pantheon was dedicated to pan theos, ‘all the gods.’ When it became a church, it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs.”
Notice that hole at the top is completely open. It was raining, so the rain was coming through the hole and making a puddle in the inside. It looked really cool with the rain falling and the light shining through :)
Finally, we visited Chiesa Luigi in Francese which translates to Church of St. Louis of the French. This church contains a number of paintings depicting the story of St. Matthew particularly, The Calling of St. Matthew by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
The tour was over about noon and Andrea, Terese and I took the metro to see the Church of St. Paul which was huge and has the images of the popes lining the ceiling:
This basilica also had St. Paul's chain of martyrdom:
We had a scheduled tour of the Vatican necropolis below St. Peter's basilica known as the Scavi tour at 2:30. We were told to be there at 2:10 and I figured 30 minutes would be enough time to get there by 2:10. Well, that was a fail. We left at 1:40 and sprinted the whole way there. We showed up 5 minutes before the tour was starting as our group was lining up to go. Andrea and I sprinted all the way up and as soon as I got in the gate, the Swiss guard told me my backpack was too big to take in... soo I was moved to the 2:45 tour. Terese had thought we had more time though so she said she would meet us there which caused her to be in even more of a time crunch! She showed up about 2:40 or so after sprinting too. So we were still in the same group together.
The Vatican necropolis, referred to as the Scavi, is the burial ground of mostly pagans from the Vatican area before St. Peter’s Basilica was built. It is located directly underneath St. Peter’s Basilica. Among the pagan tombs is the tomb of St. Peter as well as some of his bones which took extensive research and scientific testing before verifying them as truly the bones of St. Peter. His tomb is located directly beneath the altar of the basilica. To give you a feel for the atmosphere, the air was humid, dim lighting, and small, narrow passageways. Some of the objects can only be viewed one at a time – it’s a pretty amazing excavation site and the tour was extremely fascinating and well done!
After the tour at about 4:30, Terese and I headed out to see Tre Fontana where St. Paul was martyred. Well, the metro was a problem again because we thought we could get there before it was supposed to close at 6:00. Well about 5:15, we're sprinting through Rome again for the third time. We first went the wrong way and after asking three people at three different times for help we finally arrived at the church at about 5:40 - and the church was closed... we did everything we could to get in which included praying the rosary on our knees in front of the door. By the time it was 6:20, we really needed to leave in order to get back to dinner at the hotel at 7. We were super disappointed :/ but we can't expect everything to go perfectly. We got a ride with a sweet young Italian lady who was coming from praying in the other church nearby and she took us to the Marconi station (four stops closer to our destination) which was quite a blessing :) We finished our rosary on the metro back and found out dinner wasn't till 7:15. Yay!
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