Immersive Italy: Rome Day 2

The Pantheon

With fresh legs, we headed out to the city, with our first target Michelangelo's Moses, in the Monti neighborhood of Rome. On the way, we stopped in at the Basilica of Sant'Andrea della Valle, built between 1590 and 1650, featuring a monumental late-Baroque facade, complementing the second-highest dome (great video showing inside and out) in Rome after St. Peter's.  This is the first time we saw a mirror in the main aisle, so the ceiling could be more easily viewed. You can see my hands holding my phone in the third picture below.  The last photo is from the Wikipedia page.

Continuing on, we passed by Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum.  The whole district is under a massive reconstruction, not only of the ruins but also the infrastructure. The huge multi-lane roads dividing the zones are being turned into a massive pedestrian and green park ring linking major ancient sites in and around the sites. It will be amazing to see when it is completed.  

The selfie below was taken later in the day after it had cleared up a bit.  We had to wait for a line of people to take the exact same shot.  And by people I mean influencers that need to have several dozen of the same shot with different faces and the shirt on the shoulder, off the shoulder, hair up, hair down.  Oh my.  Patience is a virtue and one I run short of, and often.

Back to Moses, which is located inside the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains). The colossal marble statue displayed as part of the monumental tomb of Pope Julius II, is situated on the right side of the church, which also under a massive renovation. Some of the scaffolding is visible in one of the photos.  Pope Julius is lying on his side near the top of the tomb. The Basilica was built in the 4th century by the Empress Eudoxia and donated it to Pope Leo I, to guard the venerated chains that held the apostle Peter prisoner.  What?  I only knew about Moses.  I guess I had not learned 'vincoli' in my Italian lessons yet, which is Italian for chains.  Simply stunning.

Beneath the famous chains of Saint Peter are the relics of a woman and her seven sons, Jewish martyrs described in the 2 Maccabees 7. She and her seven sons were arrested during the persecution of Judaism initiated by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 166 BC. They were ordered to consume pork and thus violate Jewish law as part of the campaign. They repeatedly refused, and Antiochus tortured and killed the sons one by one in front of the unflinching mother before eventually killing her as well.  The relics are next to the chains, symbolizing an unyielding, unbreakable bond of faith and endurance under imprisonment or death. Chilling.  Took me a while to process that. 

While navigating through the Monti district we stopped in few more churches.  Hey, when in Rome.  This first one is  Church of Santa Maria ai Monti, built round 1580 to commemorate the miraculous discovery of a sacred 14th-century fresco image of the Virgin Mary.  Get this one.   In April 1579, a group of workers were demolishing a wall in a ruined, abandoned building.  As they struck the masonry, they reportedly heard a distinct, mysterious voice crying out, "Do not hurt the child!".  The workmen carefully dismantled the remaining bricks and uncovered a perfectly hidden, pristine fresco depicting the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus.  The fresco is at the center of the altar, and I found a close up online.

The next stop was San Marcello al Corso, located on the Via del Corso in Rome, Italy, dedicated to Pope Saint Marcellus I.  A church has stood on this traditional site of Pope Marcellus I's imprisonment and death since at least the 4th century, and this version was completed in 1686.  This is the home of the Miraculous Crucifix of San Marcello, which remained intact while the rest of the church burned down on May 23, 1519.   It was carried in a 16-day procession through Rome during the 1522 plague, after which the plague subsided.

Returning back to the area near the Pantheon, we encountered the Church of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola, which as you can see in the first picture is under a major exterior renovation.    Another impossibly gorgeous church, and we were confused because there was a long lineup to view the ceiling, again, with a mirror.  Once we got home, I found out why.  Due to a lack of funds and objections from local friars, a real stone dome was never built.   Instead, a Jesuit brother named Andrea PozzoI painted a brilliant perspective illusion of a cupola on a completely flat, low ceiling.  The ceiling is fantastic enough, but the fact about the dome is crazy.  I found a photo online - it's the last image.  Yep, that is a flat roof.

We then headed to the Pantheon; the line moved quickly once our time slot arrived. The Pantheon is the best-preserved monument of the ancient Roman world, blending imperial engineering with Renaissance history. Originally commissioned around 27 BC by Marcus Agrippa and completely rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian around 118–125 AD, it began as a pagan temple dedicated to all Roman gods, hence the name.  In 609 AD, it was consecrated as a Catholic church, now known as the Basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyres. This continuous, active use throughout its 2,000-year history is what saved the building from being plundered or ruined like other ancient structures.  Other crazy facts: 

• It is the world’s largest concrete dome suspended without reinforcement.  
• Sixteen columns support the arcade (front).  These which were transported from Egypt, and are estimated to weigh 60 tons each.
• The dome has a circular hole at its center called an oculus. So yes, this also means that it rains inside, which is not a problem due to the well-hidden drainage holes in the floor, which is slightly convex to help with drainage.
• The height from the floor to the oculus, and the diameter of the dome are the same: 43.2 m. This means that a perfect sphere could fit inside the Pantheon.
• On 21 April, on the celebration of Rome's birthday, the midday sun shines through the oculus on to the Pantheon's door.

Understanding the sheer engineering genius of the Pantheon didn't ruin the magic; it only magnified the profound awe of standing inside it.  Yes AI helped me write that.

Only two more churches, I promise.  We set out for Papal Basilica of Saint Mary the Great, also informally known as the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.  This was the only churches other than St. Peter's with security, because it is a major global religious landmark, a sovereign extraterritorial property of the Holy See, a high-profile tourist destination, and an active papal site containing priceless historical art and high-ranking papal tombs. The basilica itself was built between 432 and 440 AD by Pope Sixtus III, one year after the Council of Ephesus in 431 officially declared the Virgin Mary the Theotokos, the Mother of God. The ruling came after bitter theological debate. The basilica was the direct architectural answer: the FIRST great church of Mary in Rome, raised within a year of the vote, with 5th-century mosaics along the nave walls that are still the finest surviving example of early Christian mosaic art in the city.

The gold decor on the ceiling came later, and the gold had a source. Christopher Columbus returned from his first voyage to the Americas in 1493. The gold and goods he brought were presented to the Spanish crown, a portion of which was gifted to the Vatican. Pope Alexander VI, the Borgia pope, known in equal measure for his patronage and his corruption, commissioned the gilded wooden ceiling using that first American gold. The men who worked the lacunar panels above the nave were handling metal that had crossed the Atlantic for the first time in history.  The last photo below is a larger image of the ceiling.

Just around the corner from the larger Basilica is the Basilica di Santa Prassede, famous for its stunning golden Byzantine mosaics and for housing the relic of the Column of the Flagellation.  The what?  Column of the Flagellation is a sacred Christian relic believed to be the pillar to which Jesus was tied during his scourging before the crucifixion.  It's the last image in below.

The current structure was built between 817 and 824 AD by Pope Paschal I. It replaced an older 4th-to-5th-century parish church originally erected over the home of Saint Praxedes, a 2nd-century Roman woman who hid and cared for persecuted early Christians.

Not a bad way to spend an accidental extra 24 hours, right?  If there is one thing this trip taught us, it's that you can never truly see all of Rome—but we certainly gave it our best shot.  We ended our day at 26,542 steps.

Coming full circle, we began our Italian adventure with a tour of St. Mark’s Basilica—famed for its spectacular Byzantine gold mosaics—and ended at this small, quiet church.  Though rarely visited, it holds those same shimmering gold tiles and a deeply moving relic: the column of the flagellation.  

 

Chronicling this adventure has been deeply rewarding, grounding me in gratitude for the chance to experience it.  Though centered on the Via Francigena, our journey was defined by complete immersion from start to finish. The terrain and pace differed from the Camino, but the transformation was the same. We returned home with a profound connection to a global family, and a deep reverence for the boundless history, culture, and spirituality that awaits on the open road.  Yep, a lot of this is polished by AI, but the heart of it is all mine!

My goal is to document these adventures for ourselves, but also hopefully inspire adventures of your own!  Where to next and will there be a Calm Sleep Story involved?

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