Rome, Vatican City

The final leg of the trip was in Rome.

St. Paul’s Within the Walls church, an Anglican church near our hotel.

Castel Sant’Angelo. This was Hadrian’s Tomb, and then over the years various additions have been made, each in their own architectural style. A very strange shaped building.

The EU flag flying over the Tiber river.

Trajan’s Column, depicting his victory over the Dacians.

More ruins from Trajan’s forum.

Monument to Victorio Manuelle II, the king who unified Italy in 1871.

Interior dome of the Pantheon.

Pantheon Oculus + Clouds = the Moon?

Facade of the Pantheon.

Onward, to St. Peter’s.

All Cathedrals face east, but not all have a 16-point compass rose around a 50 foot obelisk just to make sure you know it.

The School of Athens.

No photos allowed in the Sistine Chapel…

… but you can’t stop a man with a blog.

Nave of St. Peter’s Basillica.

Altar at St. Peter’s

Holy Spirit as a dove bursting into the Vatican.

Trevi Fountain.

Some ruins from the Roman Forum.

The Colosseum.

The Arch of Titus.

The Arch of Titus was a victory monument to Titus’s sac of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple in AD 70. Here are Roman soldiers carting away a Menorah.

More ruinous columns from the Forum.

Some invisible people…

View from inside the Colosseum.

Another view, the remaining top half.

Pope Benedict XIV in the 1700’s added a cross to the ruinous site of the Colosseum, which then made it a holy place. So then the destruction ended, and it became a historical site rather than another stone quarry.