Rome is the city where much of the stuff you read about in myth, legend, and various holy books sits in front of you, mugging for pictures. Walking about town the city you stumble on not small moments in history, but very, very big ones. In an odd corner, up some stairs, and on a hill is St. Peter in Chains church, where the "actual" chains that held St. Peter during his imprisonment are kept. I don't know the veracity of the claim, but it was clear it was taken very seriously by both the church and the pilgrims who came to see them. The church itself is nice, but nothing extraordinary by Rome's standards.
But just standing there, thinking that there is a tiny chance those very chains just might have been the same ones worn by Peter during the darkest days of his life, 2,000 years ago--it sends chills up the spine, it does.
Palatine Hill
The Pantheon
The Vatican
St. Peter in Chains
Imperial Lion
St. Peter's Square and Basilica
Atop St. Peter's Dome
Castel Sant' Angelo (Pope hideaway on the Tiber River)
Day Trip to Florence
Castel Sant' Angelo, Continued
St. Paul's Outside the Walls (Vatican church in Rome's Suburbs)
Great Fountains of Rome
Musei Capitolini (Capitoline Museum): Romulus and Remus and Random Body Parts
Victor Emmanuel Monument (VE Monument)
National Museum of Rome: A Treasure Vault and Lots of Heads
Wrap-Up-The-First - Summary of the Trip
Wrap-Up-The-Last - Final Summary of the Trip
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