I overslept, and after praying my morning prayer, and having breakfast, I left for St Paul outside the wall.
As I was walking to the Piazza del Popolo, I shot a picture of parking on a closed on-ramp.
Parking along the Tiber
In the picture you can see the Tiber on the left, and a smart car near the front of the picture. The cars across the ramp have their right wheels on the curb. There were many places where I saw smart cars parked orthogonally to the curb, with their rear wheels on the sidewalk. At and near intersections there were clusters of scooters and motorcycles.
Piazza del Popolo
This picture shows Piazza del Popolo, which has an Egyptian Obelisk in the center. You can see two domes across the piazza from where I'm standing. They are two churches. The one on the left had construction going on in and around the front and you couldn't enter it. The one on the right is St Mary of the Miracle. I took this picture in front of Santa Maria del Popolo.
Santa Maria del Popolo main altar
Above you can see the main altar in Santa Maria del Popolo. Note the relief depicting the last supper on the front of the altar.
North entrance to Piazza del Popolo
This picture shows the north entrance to Piazza del Popolo. I think this used to be the northern edge of the walled city of Rome. Across the street from here (that is where I'm standing when I took the picture) is a Metro Stop. I took the Metro to go to St Paul Outside the wall. It's a Basilica, one of the four Cathedrals of the city of Rome. It is to the south of Rome, on the road to the port city of Ostia.
St Paul Outside the Wall
When I reached St Paul out side the wall, there was a long line of guys going into the Basilica.
St Paul outside the wall, front.
St Paul outside the wall, Statue of St Paul
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St Paul outside the wall, in the courtyard
You can see in the three pictures above the line of guys in black suits and white capes processing into the Basilica. There are women with them who are dressed in black too. You can also see the large statue of St Paul in the courtyard, and the facade of the Basilica.
Apse of the Basilica with the top of the papal chair visible.
To the left and right of the apse you can see a line of circular images. This is a line of images of the popes from Peter to Benedict XVI.
Confessional under statue of one of the Twelve in a niche.
The confessionals at St Paul's are like the ones in St Peters. However, they are arranged along the outer wall, frequently under statues of the Twelve. Here we see a statue of St Bartholomew.
Final four images of Popes
This picture shows the final four images of the popes with Paul VI on the right and Benedict XVI to the left of center. There are about a dozen unfilled places left in the line.
Recessional
The group that I saw processing into the Basilica were members of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher on their Jubilee Pilgrimage to Rome. This was their Mass at St Paul's outside the wall. There were thousands of them, filling the Basilica as you can see in the picture below. I was there, not in a cape and black suit, but in jeans and a tee shirt.
In the picture above you can see the canopy over the altar, statues of St Peter (on the left) and St Paul (on the right), the golden mosaic in the apse, and above the columns and arches the line of images of the popes.
There were about a hundred Priests who concelebrated the Mass, with a dozen or more Bishops, and three Cardinals. The main altar was used. I had never seen the main altar at one of the four Basilicas used by anyone but the pope before. The 1st reading was in English, and the homily was alternated between English and Italian. The main celebrant and homilist was an American Cardinal.
Recessional looking toward the back of the basilica
When I left St Paul's I returned to Termini Station on the Metro, and ate lunch at this little pasta place called Pastarito. Food was inexpensive and good. It seems from google to be a chain restaurant.
Here's the URL:
It was between Termini and St Mary Major, my next destination.St Mary Major
Pillar in front of St Mary Major
Facade St Mary Major
A Pillar stands in front of St Mary Major, topped with a statue of Madonna and Child. The fence you can see in the picture above encloses the main entrance, and has gates that are open to enter through.
Ave Regina Pacis
Painting over side altar
Baptismal Font -- note relief on back wall.
Side altar -- you can see the entrance to the basilica to the right of the second pillar.
Nave of St Mary Major looking toward the main entrance.
There is a shrine below the main altar to pope Pius IX, with a large statue of the pope kneeling in prayer. Additionally, Bernini is entombed here.
Corner of building
Corner of building
I returned to the Vatican to see if the Church of the Holy Spirit might be open still. Along the way I passed two places with sides of the building adorned. The wolf with Romulus and Remus was close to the Church of the Holy Spirit, and the Madonna with Child was on a street that runs along the one wall of the Vatican. You can see that there were vendors along that street, along with panhandlers.
In crossing the Piazza I noted the length of the lines waiting to pass through the security checkpoint. Below are two pictures that show the line going nearly across the piazza to the end of the other colonnade.
Piazza San Pietro
Piazza San Pietro
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