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Published: April 26th 2008
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It's Spring in the Pope's neighborhood This afternoon was slated for touring the Vatican. I had managed, before leaving the States, to score tickets to a much sought after tour called the “Scavi Tour”… which basically just translates to “Excavations Tour”. It is a tour that is devoted to the 20th century archeological excavations (yes, 20th century!) UNDER the basilica, where a complete Roman necropolis was located and the remains of St. Peter himself were believed to be buried. Apparently they were drilling under the basilica in the late 1930's and found evidence of something that intrigued the Pope at that time to initiate a full-on archeological dig, and what they discovered turned out to be an ancient necropolis 30 feet down. I found out about this tour by reading, once again, traveler reviews and blogs on my favorite travel sites. I can’t recommend that practice highly enough when preparing for a trip to a particular region. It really helps you whittle down your touring objectives to what is really worthwhile. Anyway, I told Tim about this tour and of course he was very excited to go, being a big science and history devotee. I immediately set out to request the tickets, and this was about 3-4
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The Metro (subway) takes you to Ottaviano, the closest stop to the Vatican. The walk is another few blocks to the entrance. weeks from our departure. Everyone who had posted about this tour said you need to request them about 4 months in advance, so I wasn’t sure what our chances would be. Well, the first request came back almost immediately with a no-go. Unavailable on that date. So I modified the date and time and tried again. Bingo! Got the tickets. It is only 10 euro a person to go, but because it is such a cool tour, they are just very tough to get - so I was thrilled! So this was a much anticipated day.
We took the Metro to the Ottaviano stop, which is closest to the Vatican (the Vatican is about the only thing in Rome that it’s not really close enough to walk to) and I was immediately impressed with the neighborhood around the Vatican. Very picturesque, tree-lined streets with traditional Roman apartment buildings and lots of nice boutiques, gelaterias, Panini shops, and of course (because of the tourist foot traffic) street vendors. But all in all, a very nice vibe to it. Walking into the Vatican, you sort of sense you are about to experience something big… something very unique and monumental in scale,
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The entrance to St Peters Square and the Basilica but I swear we were unprepared for the vastness of St. Peters Square! The place is HUMONGOUS. And grand. And palatial. And very pontiff-esque. Now, I am not trying to be sacrilegious, my Catholic friends… just trying to relate my impressions upon entering this magnificent (round) square. Yes… it’s actually round. There are columns all around in two half circles, and there’s a pope atop every column. I mean, there are a passel of these guys, obviously going way the heck back. The interior of the square - which is where the people assemble for the papal addresses - is HUGE. The basilica and its dome… magnificent. Really, really ornate and just a beautiful piece of architecture. The grounds around the square… precisely manicured and lovely. The Swiss Guards… cordial, on point, but pretty darn circus-y in their little outfits. No self-respecting Italian would ever be caught dead in that get-up.
On to… The Scavi Tour… AMAZING. We loved it! It was about an hour and a half long and took us underneath the basilica, about 30 feet below the ground. Wow. The result of the excavations initiated in the late 1930s turned out to be an amazingly 034
Basilica duomo in the background of one side of the Square's semi-circular columned border. The past pontiffs grace the top of the columns. intact Roman necropolis, which is like a little city of mausoleums. Now we think of mausoleums as a diminutive place to hold the urns full of ashes, etc., but these mausoleums were like little homes, with facades on the front that looked like real homes or storefronts. It's like a little city for the dead. I guess one of their favorite things to do back in the day was to go and visit their dearly departed at the necropolis. They would bring gifts, food, drink, just spend some time with them. The mausoleums were adorned to the hilt with mosaics, murals with Egyptian, Pagan, botanical and animal inspirations, steps leading to nowhere (well, ok… I'm sure they were a passage to heaven…) and ornate furnishings. See, they wanted these dead family members to be happy in their necropolis home so they would not consider coming back to the family home where the survivors remained, as they were terribly afraid and superstitious about being haunted by unhappy spirits. So… they indulged them after they passed over by cooking them feasts, bringing them treasures, money, etc. All sorts of stuff was found there, but also a lot had been looted long before 035
Beautiful fountain in mid-St Peters Square the necropolis was ever discovered.
The rest of the tour addressed the site where they believe St. Peter’s remains were found, in a small column-demarked crypt DIRECTLY under the altar in the basilica, some 30 feet above where we stood during the tour. They actually had a little Lucite box that had some bones in it and presented to us that despite modern forensics, they have not been able to determine 100% accurately that those are the bones of St. Peter. However, they highly suspect they are and therefore have placed the sacred remains in their original final resting place, deep in the necropolis under St. Peters Basilica. Just amazing stuff. It’s really tough to even relate how awesome this tour was. Meandering through the narrow tunnels under the Vatican, single file and crouching down at some points, walking through a labyrinth of ancient burial tombs where the murals reflect the times of Pagans and Christians alike. Way too cool. All I can say is… if you are going to Rome, you HAVE to go on the Scavi Tour.
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Angie
non-member comment
Great blog!
Great travel blog! I'll be in Italy this fall, and the Scavi tour is the one thing I couldn't do last time, as tickets weren't available. I managed to get reservations for this trip, and reading your posts on your tour has been great. And your photos are beautiful. Thanks for sharing your trip!