Scavi Tour

Finals are done and I am finally free!! So, since I'm pretty much done packing and as ready to go as I'm going to be before I leave, I thought I would, once again catch up on the blog.

Last week was the last week of classes and Friday JCU gave us a study day, so naturally we went to the Vatican. One of the things that I wanted to do while I was here was the Scavi Tour of the Vatican Necropolis - I'd heard nothing but great things about it and, almost even better, a lot of people don't know about it. So I put in our request for a tour, you have to send the Scavi Office precise details as to who wants to go and dates that will work as they only allow 250 people a day into the Necropolis. Luckily, they gave us a reservation for last Friday, so we decided to utilize the morning to learn a bit more about Vatican history - still studying, right?!

Let me just say that the tour does not disappoint, at least not entirely. First we (Nick, his roommate Brian, and I) had to make it past the Swiss Guard - slightly intimidating, but luckily he didn't have a halberd. Once the group arrived (8 in total with 2 American priests) our tour began in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica.

Upon entering the grotteso we stopped at a model of Saint Peter's tomb (it is the main attraction, so to speak, of the tour) and got an incredibly dumbed down, Catholic 101 lesson on Saint Peter, the basilica, and the Vatican itself. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand why this needs to be done, but I did have to bite my lip to keep from laughing with the priests standing behind me, "Fathers, in case you didn't know, Peter is considered to be the first pope and holds the keys to heaven." Duh!!

I digress. We then proceeded downstairs, under current ground level to the necropolis. Let me tell you, this is cool!! Obviously, back in the day, this was ground level, so we were standing in the middle of a street (dating back to the 1st century AD or earlier) that is probably no more than 6' wide, underground, in between buildings that are probably 20' tall that use to house peoples' dead. It should be mentioned that the Holy See has reason to believe that the necropolis extends all the way to the Tiber (that's a long way, believe me), but for obvious reasons can't excavate it all.

After looking in a few tombs, we made it to, what is believed to be, Saint Peter's original tomb. Now, obviously this is the Vatican, the head of the Catholic Church giving this tour, so you have to question the impartiality. With that being said, according to our guide, this is the only location ever referenced as Peter's burial spot and numerous tombs nearby reference being near Peter, so with the information that is available, it is reasonable to believe that it is his original tomb.

This is the one spot that I will say that I was slightly disappointed - let's just say that Saint Peter's tomb, rather anticlimactic. You are kept a good 20' away from it (understandable) behind a railing that stands a couple of feet in front of a wall in which you peer through the doorway, past at least a couple more walls protruding into your line of sight at a rectangular opening that appears to be no more than 2' x 1' of orange light - that is St. Peter's tomb. In hindsight, I don't know what exactly I was expecting from one of the holiest of tombs dating back to 65 AD, but clearly it was slightly more than that.

In the lack of euphoria that was the tomb, we moved on to the next room where we learned about its discovery - this was actually quite interesting. The excavations of the necropolis took place under Pope Pius XII (I could be wrong, but I believe that is correct). Apparently an archaeologist found St. Peter's bones at some point when he was alone, so, naturally, he boxed them up and put them in the Vatican Archives for safe keeping. The problem here being that the archaeologist failed to mention this to anyone. (Next time someone tells you that communication is not important, just remember that you could lose St. Peter!!)

So, at some point not too much later, the excavations continue (with the pope present, if I remember correctly) and bones are pulled from one of the adjacent tombs. The story goes that the pope had a doctor (our guide claiming the doctor to be an opthamologist, hardly an expert) analyze the bones. Upon inspection the doctor returned with a nearly immediate, "yes, looks like the bones of a 60-something-year-old male in good health." Unfortunately, once the true expert got a look at the bones this was disproven as there were apparently 6 femurs, 2 of which appeared to be female.

If this isn't Saint Peter than who is? At this point, Saint Peter is lost.

In the end, and I don't remember the rest of the details, Peter was found in the Vatican Archives, at which point his bones were divided in two, one half being placed in the chapel in the Pope's residence and the other half being reburied within the so-called graffiti wall.

At this point we were taken in to visit Saint Peter and did actually get a look at his remains. (I should mention that, once his remains were rediscovered, the actual expert verified that the bones appeared to be that of one 60-something-year-old, healthy male. That, along with the location in which they were found, is what leads the Vatican to believe that, without the ability to do DNA testing, they are indeed the remains of Saint Peter. Faith.)

The tour ends, back in the grottoes, in the Chapel of the Head (I think that's what it's called) which is dedicated entirely to Saint Peter. The chapel is so named, if I am correct, because, per his original burial, it is where his head would have been.

Fittingly enough, directly across from the chapel is the tomb of Pope Pius XII. Due to the crucial role he played in the excavations and the locating of Saint Peter's remains, he was buried opposite the chapel.

Having made our way back out to the basilica itself, we all agreed that the tour was definitely not overrated - undoubtedly the coolest thing any of us have seen in Rome (technically the Holy See). And, as a slight addendum, I cannot even begin to put into words what it meant to me as a Catholic. Vatican City will take anyone's breath away, let alone a member of the Church, so to be able to visit the Vatican Necropolis was incredible!!

2 days and counting!! Can't wait to see everyone and happy holidays!!

Ciao, ciao!!

*Oh, I apologize for the lack of pictures once again, but, rather understandably, pictures were not allowed on the tour. Use your imaginations and know that if you ever make it to Rome, you should definitely do the Scavi Tour.