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St Peter’s Basilica was my favourite thing about Rome. It was breathtaking, words can’t even describe the feeling it gave me and the beauty of it – it was the single most beautiful building I have ever stepped foot into.
St Peter’s is one of the most famous places of worship in Italy, in the World even, steeped in history and meaning, and a mecca for Roman Catholics. Featured in films, TV, books, it’s pretty famous and is the even the final resting place of every Pope since St Peter himself.
I don’t really openly discuss religion, as I know everyone has very different opinions and I respect that everyone has the right to their own opinion. I’m one of these who has been raised as a Catholic, but at the same time I absolutely love science and am a firm believer that you can believe the evidence that science brings, whilst having faith too.
Over the weekend we visited St Peter’s Basilica twice, on the Saturday to have a look around and go up the dome (more on the dome tomorrow – the views over Rome deserve their own post!), and on Sunday for mass. Just being in that church, gradually my faith started returning, until Sunday morning when I walked into St Peter’s Basilica to hear the sound of a choir. I followed the voices and found dozens of priests singing in perfect harmony in front of Pope John Paul II’s tomb, and that was it.
The moment everything came flooding back to me, and I realized that my faith had been there the whole time, it just needed reigniting. It was the most beautiful sound to hear when standing in a place of worship hundreds of years old, where thousands of people over the past two thousand years have walked, and with St Peter’s bones somewhere beneath me.
As well as all of the amazing sculptures, the ceilings and artwork were just mind-blowing. So. Much. Gold. The whole interior of the church is so extravagant and opulent, but so beautiful. I still can’t get over that all of this is nearly 500 years old. It’s just really incredible to think that all of this has survived so much, and so many years, and it’s still in excellent condition.
There is always something happening at St Peter’s Basilica, on the Saturday we stumbled across a huge crowd of people, we moved towards it and saw a bride and her father walking towards one of the chapels with a priest. The crowd grew and security had to come and keep everyone in check, as she walked down the aisle in front of hundreds of total strangers towards her family, friends, and future husband, everyone started clapping and the sound reverberated around the church. It was awesome, I totally wanna get married in St Peter’s now! Check out all the people in the pic below!
Then at communion a lady went up, took the bread, and walked off holding it. A security man stopped her and made her put it in her mouth, which she wasn’t too happy about. Why did she go up and take it then!? If I was welcomed into a Synagogue or Mosque I would never partake in something I didn’t understand, I would sit and watch until I was invited to take part.
The guy in the middle in bright red is the Cardinal…it was a bit awkward because everyone thought he was the Pope and I was like ‘bitch please, he’s just a Cardinal’. Seriously though, how can you not know what the Pope looks like!? His face practically covers Rome, you can’t get away from merchandise with his face on it!
We then went outside and after having a coffee and cake, we went to St Peter’s Square to see the Pope himself give his Sunday sermon from his window. As his sermon was ending hundreds of colourful balloons were released into the sky by various people, it was a pretty magical sight.
Thanks for the 8:30am tip! Although I'm not sure if I'll be able to crawl out of bed that early. I've never seen the Basilica so crowded and full of exciting events before! And I love your outfit, perfect for exploring Rome 🙂 xxx
La Lingua : Food, Life, Love, Travel, Friends, Italy
Haha, it was tough, but so worth it!
Thank you, it was definitely the perfect city outfit 🙂
C x
WOW.
That's all I can say.
x
really beautiful & glorifying photography
I adore Rome, recently wrote a post on my trip as well. Another good tip is to join a tour, you don't have to stay with the group if you don't want to (we did and learned about so much) but you get past all of the queues in quick time! Did you go right to the top?
Kate
http://www.adventuresofkate.co.uk
Yeh, the one thing we regretted was not getting tickets in advance/not joining a tour just so we could skip the queues! The queue for the Sistine Chapel was INSANE. Yeh, I wrote a separate blog post on going to the top of the Dome 🙂 absolutely love it! Such an incredible view over the city!
C x
Thank you, Catherine ! What a wonderful experience !