Getting back today I was in a total trance. I can't even describe how I felt, but I will try.
This afternoon I went to the SCAVI, which are the excavations underneath St. Peter's Basilica. It completely renewed me in all aspects of life and made me feel so awe-inspired. I have a renewed passion for learning, history, art, religion. It just made me really excited about everything. I literally couldn't stop talking about it and (though this is completely cheesy and cliche') I wanted to shout from the rooftops about my experience.
Well those were my reactions afterwards, but I'll explain a little bit what the SCAVI is. St. Peter's Basilica is built on top of about 4 other churchs and tombs, which were all built on top of eachother as well. They originally built the basilica on a hill and make it the focal point of the city, but the ancient basilica remains are whats so interesting, it is the tombs that are the real jackpot here.
In ancient times, they didn't have grave yards, but they had something called family tombs. These were rooms that they kept the bodies or the remains of family members and the family would come and have little parties to celebrate the dead. It was the first time that middle class people had this type of place to keep their dead. So, 35 ft underneath the Basilica you see today is an entire city of family tombs, a city underground. The tombs stretch all the way from the back of the basilica to the river. When you are walking in St. Peter's Square you are walking on top of a city of tombs. And inside these family tombs they would have up to 78 urns of family members! In all, there are more than 100,000 people buried in this city of tombs under St. Peter's, but it wasn't eerie or creepy at all. It was fascinating and really felt like I was walking in a little city.
After seeing this, we were taken into a little room and in the wall there was a hole, in the hole was a clear plastic box with real bones in it. These were the bones of St. Peter himself. I literally got chills when I saw this. I was in the presence of the bones of St. Peter. It was beyond words.
To top it all off, on our way out we were taken through the crypt of the popes, where there are a bunch of popes buried. I was with Dr. Sebastian, our teacher, and on the way out, the last two popes were Boniface the VII and Nicholas the II. Two of the popes we had just talked about in our lit class the day before.
It put me off the edge, in a good way. I still don't know if I have fully wrapped my mind around the idea that there are still remains and structures from millions of years ago and that a modern city is built on top of these structures. Life goes on on top of places where people used to live millions of years ago. The world is so big and so much has happened, it's just amazing. There is literally so much out there and so much to see, learn, find, do. I am addicted now. I just want more and yet I still can't even believe that I was there next to St. Peter's bones or that I was walking in an area that ancient people used to walk in all the time.
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