Castel Sant’ Angelo: Continued – A Week in Rome

Castel Sant’ Angelo requires two installments, not just one. We began by focusing on the history of this fascinating structure and its structure in the previous installment.  Castel Sant’ Angelo was a prime location for the Tom Hanks film “Angels & Demons” and for good reason – the actual history of the place reads like a Hollywood movie, with papal intrigue, violence, and more.

Click here for previous chapters of “A Week in Rome.”

This time, we’ll take a 2,000 year old bridge that gets you there from the Old City — and yes, the three arches in the middle are original:

Now that’s quality construction, that is. The bridge connects the castle to Rome’s historic core across the Tiber River. The bridge is lined with more recent–but still very old–additions of angel statues:

The Tiber River itself is, like Florence’s River Arn, a slow-moving river by Western US standards. Wide and lazy it winds between what was the center of Imperial Rome and the outlying developments, such as the Vatican City. From the top of Castel Sant’ Angelo, we could see vast clouds of swallows dancing over the river, almost like flights of bats.

And finally, the sunset over the Vatican City.

Table of Contents
The Colosseum
Palatine Hill
The Forum
The Pantheon
The Vatican
St. Peter in Chains
Imperial Lion
St. Peter’s Square and Basilica
Atop St. Peter’s Dome
Castel Sant’ Angelo (Pope hideaway on the Tiber River)
Day Trip to Florence
Castel Sant’ Angelo, Continued
St. Paul’s Outside the Walls (Vatican church in Rome’s Suburbs)
Great Fountains of Rome
Musei Capitolini (Capitoline Museum): Romulus and Remus and Random Body Parts
Victor Emmanuel Monument (VE Monument)
National Museum of Rome: A Treasure Vault and Lots of Heads
Wrap-Up-The-First – Summary of the Trip
Wrap-Up-The-Last – Final Summary of the Trip