March 1 & 2 - The Pantheon and The Pope

I forgot to mention in yesterday's posting, that I continued on from Capitol Hill to the famous, said to be one of the "best-preserved" ancient building -- The Pantheon -- still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.  With the continuing assistance of the audio tour app, I marveled at the precise construction and labor involved.  Even the columns are said to have been transported intact from their quarry in Egypt.

Thereafter I made my way back to the Vatican/St. Peter's to try to arrange a ticket to be at the Pope's weekly audience on the following day -- free but only available at certain hours and by again passing through security/metal detectors - and another queue.  I was confused by the process as I ended up in a line with people who had printed reservations for tickets -- but ended up getting the coveted ticket just by asking the decoratively uniformed Swiss Guard at the entry point for the people with reservations.  He obliged. I appreciated the luck to be here on a Wednesday that the Pope was having his audience and to score a ticket -- though in hindsight I think all the ticket got me was a faster way around security the following day.

On Wedneday morning (March 2), I made my way back to St. Peter's plaza around 8am (for the 10am audience) and found a seat as close as I could get at that point.  Plenty of folks were already there.  I enjoyed visiting with those around me -- a parish of visitors and their tour guide for Solanas, Sardinia.  After educating me on their piece of the planet, one gentleman wanted to encourage my visit by giving me his card promoting holiday homes there.  I'll add a visit there to my never-empty bucket list!

Being part of this week's Pope's audience was super-interesting from a people-watching perspective, but all but a small portion of visiting parish introductions is conducted in Italian.  I asked the Sardinian tour guide seated next to me (who had attended many times) whether the Pope made any new pronouncements or said anything about "walls."  She said everything was routine -- but it was clear she was up on current events as she proceeded to ask me about my views on Donald Trump.

I spent the rest of the day wandering (both on foot and Metro) and visited Rome's oldest cathedral -- the first Christian basilica to be build in Rome: St. John's in Laterano (Basilica Di San Giovanni). Certainly as beautiful as St. Peter's, my photos don't begin to capture it, so the wikipedia entry photos will have to suffice.

Similarly, I made my way to the 12th century Basilica Di San Clemente and took the self-guided tour into its foundation that holds a 4th century church built upon a 2nd century pagan temple and a 1st century Roman house.  Learning about the pagan temple's "Mithras" cult left me yearning to study more.  I guess I've always been fascinated how our own American traditions -- even religions -- seem to be an unusual concoction of pagan and Christian connections (Christmas trees, Halloween, etc)

Another most interesting day in Rome.