St. Peter in Chains

I said to myself (and to Tom) that this trip was NOT going to be about churches. I've been to Rome and seen the churches, and in all honesty, they really do begin to blend in to one another. There are only a couple I felt a strong urge to visit, and one was San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains).

I had been to this church before, and didn't remember it very well. Thirty years ago, on my approach to the church via a steep staircase within a tunnel, I was almost pickpocketed by a little girl and her family. I didn't really remember the church, or the massive statue of Moses by Michaelangelo.

Esquiline, Continued
I said to myself (and to Tom) that this trip was NOT going to be about churches. I've been to Rome and seen the churches, and in all honesty, they really do begin to blend in to one another. There are only a couple I felt a strong urge to visit, and one was San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains). I had been to this church before, and didn't remember it very well. Thirty years ago, on my approach to the church via a steep staircase within a tunnel, I was almost pickpocketed by a little girl and her family. I didn't really remember the church, or the massive statue of Moses by Michaelangelo.
	The church was smaller, more undistinguished, than I remembered. It wasn't until you got past its plain (not Baroque, thank goodness) exterior that you saw the glories of the interior.

	The Nativity Scene (at left, common in all churches at Christmas) is in front of the reliquary that holds the chains that supposedly bound St. Peter during his imprisonment.
But the real reason to visit this church is the massive Tomb for Pope Julius II (unfinished), with its Charlton Heston-esque Moses.