Attila's Pilgrimage: The Vatican, Catacombs & St John Lateran Church

The dome is St Peters is visible right across Rome. By law, nothing can be built higher!

Today we visited the Vatican museum.The Vatican is such an amazing place and not just because of the Sistine Chapel. There are so many art treasures that if you spent just 1 minute to view each object, it would take 14 years without any breaks!

Some of these tapestries dating from more than 400 years ago, measured 10m x 10m but with such incredible colors and details

(Below) A section of the magnificent Michangelo Sistine Chapel ceiling and front piece depicting the Judgement Day.

The emotionally charged Michelangelo, Pieta.

St Peters Basilica main altar.

I'd always wanted to visit the catacombs (sorry no photos allowed inside) and so we went outside Rome to do this. Some of the catacombs we saw dated back to the 2nd century! We saw a variety of early Christian symbols including the Good Shepherd, praying woman, fish and ICHTHYS - ΙΧΘΥΣ (This is the Greek) it is an acronym for "Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ", (Iēsous Christos, Theou Yios, Sōtēr), which translates into English as "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior". We visited the San Collista Catacombs which total some 20 kilometers! Over the entire area we visited more than 500,000 people were buried!

Following this we visited the Basilica of San Giovanni (St John) Laterano which is the oldest church in the world. It was the first public Christian Church allowed under the Roman Empire. It was founded by Pope Melchiade at the start of the 4th century on the ruins of the villa of the Roman family, the Laterani.

Outside the church is another Egyptian obelisk. This one is the oldest one in Rome.

Attached to the St John Lateran church is another chapel that houses the Holy Stairs. These stairs where allegedly those that Jesus trod on the way to Calvery. They were brought to Rome. They have been encased with wooden treads. The devout climb the stairs on their knees while praying.

We also visited a great little meeting place - Piazza Di Campidoglio as well as viewing the Colleseum and some ancient Roman Forum ruins by night. Sore feet again tonight!