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Published: June 16th 2017
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01 Ancient Wall
The ancient wall/passageway - Passetto di Borgo. Geo: 41.8955, 12.4823
We slowly walked out of Piazza San Pietro and regularly turned around to admire the view. It was even more amazing as the sun was setting. Soon after we had left the Vatican City and walked towards the castle of Saint Angelo along the main thoroughfare of Via della Conciliazione. This would lead us to the castle and the river. We slowly walked along and to our left I noticed a city wall. I wanted to go and have a look. Michael was tired, so he waited for me on a bench.
This 800m long wall went from the Vatican City to Saint Angelo's Castle. It is known as Passetto di Borgo and is an elevated passageway. In the past it was been used by popes to escape from danger in the Vatican City. There was a wall built here in the 500's and in 1277 there was an addition to create this safety corridor. The wall was in great condition with little gates so cars and pedestrians didn't have to go around the wall.
I went back and suggested to Michael that we walk beside the wall instead of the other busy street. He agreed and we followed the
02 Way Through
A way through to the other side. Passetto di Borgo all the way to the castle. At the end we looked back and enjoyed another view of St Peter's Basilica. Ahead of us was the castle. To me this is a strange shaped castle as it is round. It was originally built as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian and his family and later used as a fortress and castle, it is now a museum. We were too late to visit the castle today. We walked around the castle towards the Ponte Sant'Angelo.
On the pedestrian only bridge Ponte Sant'Angelo there were many tourists and their annoying selfie sticks. This bridge has had many changes over the years and the first bridge here was built in 134AD! It was built by Emperor Hadrian to reach his new mausoleum from the city. It is also known as the Bridge of Angels. There are ten large statues of angels, each one holding an instrument of the passion, which were designed by Bernini. He sculpted just two of them and they were liked so much by Pope Clement IX that he moved them to the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte. The ones that were moved were titled 'Angel with the Superscription' and
03 Way Through
Another way through the long wall. ‘Angel with the Crown of Thorns'. A copy was put in their place on the bridge.
From this bridge we had a really nice view of the sun setting behind the Vatican City. We left the river and walked into the city in search of a supermarket. We found a small one, but it had such a great range of food that it took us ages to decide what to buy. Loaded up with groceries we waited at the bus stop for a bus that would get us close to our apartment. We caught a bus that went to Termini Station. The bus ride was awful as it was very crowded and people still tried to get on. We jumped off sooner than we should have and chose to walk the rest of the way.
Tonight we had a TV night and made sightseeing plans for tomorrow.
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