St Peters #WalshGlobal

Yesterday, November 19^thI was able to tour three main sites of St. Peters Basilica.  We received a guided tour of both the excavations of St. Peters tomb and St. Peters Basilica itself.  We also got the opportunity to climb the dome of St. Peters.   Our first tour was the excavations of St. Peters tomb, with Matteo our tour guide.  The tour started with the grotto under the Basilica, where historic tombs and mosaics can be found.  The grotto was not very big, because the main attraction is the excavations found underneath. The excavations where those tombs in the grotto were found, can be accessed through a set of small stairs at the end of the grotto.  The stairs lead to a dark and humid room where we were met with an ancient tomb. The tomb was massive and held the religious secrets of the times just after Christ’s death.  This tomb was also unique because it had four different religious depicted, Christianity, Islam, Roman pagan and Judaism. All of those religions in one tomb means that the family was split on religions and everyone in the family believed in what they pleased.  After the large tomb, we went through a series of tunnels that lead to the main part of the excavated necropolis.  Here we found tombs of many rich families, we could tell they were rich because the wills of the owners had the price of the tombs inscribed in marble. The cheapest tomb was around 20,000 modern day euros, while the biggest one exceeded over one million euros. After passing the necropolis we reached the graffiti wall.  This wall is important because this is what gave archeologist the ability to possibly discover Peter’s bones.  I say possibly because they did, in fact, discover bones in the graffiti wall and got them analyzed but are only 95 percent sure they are St. Peter’s bones.  The wall is the graffiti wall because the wall was covered with inscriptions, one that said in Latin that “Peter is here”.  This clue was what helps archeologist believe that the bones found are indeed the bones of Peter.  This was a truly holy place and feeling, I will never forget it.  The next stop was to the top of the dome of St. Peter Basilica. It was a long 500 plus stair walk, but it was well worth the view.  I got a panoramic view of Rome, it was truly mind-blowing.  After the short visit to the top, we got a personal tour of St. Peters from a seminarian, Matt. The tour was breathtaking, it is hard to realize just how big the basilica is in photographs.  Matt said that from the floor to the top of the dome alone could fit two space shuttles, to put into perspective of how big this place is.  The architecture is so beautiful as well as all the mosaics, paintings and sculptures.  The sculpture by Michelangelo was one to behold, I got such a holy feeling looking at the sculpture, it was amazing.  The basilica was beautiful and loved the tour, it was one of my favorite places I have visited on this program. I plan to go back more than once before I head home, and hopefully visit more than once in my life after I leave this program.