Today’s post is 1800 words, 52 photos, 1 video, a 9 minute read. Enjoy!
Hi everyone,
Welcome back to Traveling with Tom. Thanks for the comments and likes while I was away the past few weeks. I’m back home after accumulating a lot of material for future posts.
This is the seventh post in the series from Rome. If you missed the first six articles, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. Next will be the last in this series, then I’ll take you to delightful Sicily.
Old Bones
It was another early start to the day. We were up at 5 AM and out the door of our AirBnb apartment by a little after 6. We were on our way to a service at the Tomb of St. Peter at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Earlier in the week we picked up our tickets for the audience with the Pope at the Pontifical North American College. When we were leaving the orientation, my Traveling Partner and I struck up a conversation with Sister Maria Juan. She was delightful and engaging with a good sense of humor. She told us about a service her order, the Sisters of Mercy, was having on Saturday morning, th service in English beginning at 7:15 AM at the Tomb of St. Peter. Since I’m not Catholic, I asked if this early mass counted as attending for Sunday since I knew my Traveling Partner wanted to attend services on Sunday. I was angling for one less church service for the weekend! Sister told me “no, it has to be after 4 PM on Saturday to count for Sunday.” Deflated, I then asked if they allowed non-Catholics to attend the Mass in the Tomb.” She said: “Absolutely! All are welcome even skeptics and non-believers.”
With that information in mind, we arrived at the Vatican and cleared security by 7 AM. Jesus and the Apostles were still standing guard over St. Peter’s Square. It had rained during the night so everything including the air was clean and fresh.
We entered St. Peter’s, the place was eerily quiet. Sure, there were some people milling around but not the crowds that usually fill the place during the day, every day.
We had a few minutes, so walked through St. Peter’s to gawk at its beauty.
Sister Maria Juan said there would be a crowd of people with several in habits near the Tomb of St. Peter that lies under the main alter currently undergoing renovation. Seeing no one, we noticed the nearby gate to the Grottos/Crypts was open so we thought maybe the service was below ground. After wandering around for a few minutes among the tombs of dead popes. a few cardinals, Queen Charlotte of Cyprus, and Queen Christina of Sweden with all the decorations, sculptures, paintings, frescoes, and inscriptions, we met up with a security guard. He asked in English what we were looking for. We told him about the service at 7:15 in St. Peter’s Tomb. He told us to wait and came back a few minutes later to usher us to the tiny Clementine Chapel in the Grotto, where the mortal remains of St. Peter lay.
In a couple of minutes, a couple of other people entered followed by six priests in liturgical vestments. There were also two seminarians and five in the audience including me. 
The chapel is beautiful with marble, gold leaf and great artwork. Click here if you want to learn more about this chapel in the Grotto. The service (in English) lasted about 40 minutes and followed the traditional order of service. We chatted with a couple of the priests after the conclusion, they wondered where we were from and thanked us for coming. We did not see any Sisters of Mercy. We learned later, their service was above us at the Tomb, also known as The Confessio. So our wayward wandering brought us to a place not many people enter. Me, I’m still trying to figure out the difference between the tomb and the crypt.
On our way out of the Grotto, we saw other chapels, a few were occupied, most were empty.
It was about 8 AM when we emerged from the Crypt. The Basilica was still quiet but more people were entering every minute. We spent the next half hour walking around while the crowds were still small. Below are a few photos and a video on our walkabout.
The ceiling of St. Peter’s is quite magnificent with gold work, paintings about the life of Christ.
Michelangelo’s sculpture “La Madonna della Piata” (Our Lady of Piety) was created in 1498-1499. It’s often considered as a key piece in the start of a time of when exceptional artistic works were created in Rome and throughout Italy. The detail and workmanship is incredible. This masterpiece was followed by his sculpture “David” on display in Florence. 
The Cupola
There were no lines to enter the cupola at this early hour. When we were at St. Peter’s a few days prior, the line was out the door. We paid the 8 € fee plus an additional 2 € to take the elevator to the roof of the building. This saved us from climbing 231 steps, well worth the cost. We stepped off the elevator that was behind the statues of Jesus and the Apostles. Somehow they don’t look as imposing as they do from the front, standing at ground level looking up.
While the second part of the climb to the cupola is optional, the views from the top are the best.
This means 324 steps that become progressively narrower on a corkscrew type staircase. On the walk up, visitors can take a look at the inside of St. Peter’s from the dome. Here’s what that looks like:
We were huffing and puffing once we reach the top, but the effort is worth it, the panoramic views are breathtaking.
The building in the foreground is the Sistine Chapel with the Vatican Museum behind it. Beyond that lies part of the city of Rome.
After taking in the scene at the cupola, we headed back down. When we reached the roof top, we discovered the elevator doesn’t take passengers down. We had to walk the additional 231 steps down to the Basilica. It was much easier going down than up!
The crowds were starting to build, the security lines were long so we decided that it was time to move on to our next adventure. But first, a coffee and pastry.
More Old Bones
After our nourishment, we hopped back on the Metro and traveled to the Piramide station. As we exited the station, across the street was, well… a pyramid. What the heck is a pyramid doing in the middle of metropolitan Rome? It was built in 18-12 BC as tomb for Gaius Cestius, a prominent Roman citizen of some wealth. It’s considered one of the best preserved ancient buildings in Rome. Apparently, the pyramid was built to the exact specifications to the Egyptian pyramids, only much smaller. When the tomb was opened in the 1600s, the small interior was found to be decorated with frescoes but there was no trace of other contents such as a casket or a body. It was either plundered at some point in time or the fellow was never buried there. The pyramid underwent restoration about 10 years ago. Since then visitors are granted access to the interior on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. Reservations are required.
Around the corner from the pyramid is the Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners, also known as the Protestant Cemetery or the English Cemetery. One of my writing friends recommended visiting this cemetery. I’m glad we did. With all the spectacular sites in Rome, this out-of-the-way cemetery was one of my favorites. Don’t ask me why, maybe because it was so peaceful and well-done or maybe I felt at home with the non-Catholics! Or maybe it was the towering cypress trees, the trimmed hedges, the holly, the flowers, or the guardian cats that roam the grounds.
For a donation of 5 € each, visitors are welcome between the hours of 9 to 5. The cemetery contains the graves of Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, and other non-Christians. The first burial was that of an Englishman in 1716. English poets John Keats and Percy Shelley are buried in this cemetery as well as a long list of other well known figures. 
Here’s a photo of the tombstone of John Keats whose name is not mentioned on his monument. Next to Keats is a memorial stone dedicated to his friend, Joseph Severn, a painter of note who does mention Keats.
The year after Keats died in 1821 of tuberculosis at age 25, Shelley, age 29, drowned while swimming in the Italian Riviera. These two great poets knew each other while in London but weren’t friends. They however are buried in the same cemetery but not close to each other. I don’t know if that is symbolic but they were poets after all!
We spent nearly an hour walking among the graves, stopping to read the epitaphs and admiring the artistic work of the sculptors. Here’s a bit of what we saw:
One of the most interesting sculptures was on the tomb of Georges Volkoff (1925-1936) of Bulgarian descent. That’s about all I could find out about this young boy. I can guess he liked to read. Do you think his face looks adult like? I do.
A Market
It was after noon and we were very ready for some lunch. From my review of the guide books and my trusty map, I knew there was a market nearby. The Testaccio Market is considered one of the best markets in Rome, in a city with many markets. It’s not only the fresh vegetables, fruits, cheese, wine, meats, fish, and home made pasta; it’s the fresh flowers and plants, the clothing shops, the home goods, and of course the food stands. 
Since we were there for some lunch, we surveyed the food stands until we found one that would work for us. As an aside, the Italians don’t know how to form a cue. It’s everyone for themselves, so one must be a little assertive to place an order. The young woman at the stand we selected spoke some English so explained how it worked. We placed an order, paid by card and waited for our number to be called. Except it was called out in Italian. Fortunately, the woman recognized it was our order and made sure we got our food. If left too long, it might have been grabbed by someone else! The food was great and we enjoyed the atmosphere of the busy market. It closes at 2 PM so by the time we finished our lunch the crowds were smaller, probably headed home for their afternoon siesta.
After the market, we took a stroll along the Tiber River. There wasn’t much to see but it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. That evening, we went out to get our daily allotment of gelato. The fountain near our AirBnb was quite crowded, lots of young people ready for a night on the town.
That does for this week. Join me next week for the last in the Rome series.
Until then, happy travels!
Tom
PS: Click here for a link to the post about my book “Farm Boy.” Contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. Thanks to all have plunked down your hard earned dollars and read the book. TM