Saint Peter's Basilica(Basilica di San Pietro), the importance of religious culture in the heart of the Vatican (Rome-Italy)

Saint Peter's Basilica(Basilica di San Pietro), the importance of religious culture in the heart of the Vatican (Rome-Italy)

Hello travellers from all over the world

Today's post I wish was a little different because I wish we could go together to a very spiritually important place, perhaps the place where every Christian wants to go at least once in their life.

Today we will walk through the Vatican City, by the way you know that the Vatican is the smallest sovereign state in the world and is ruled by the Pope.

Now that I have visited this place I can give you some advice, namely if you are going to visit the very famous sights of the Vatican do not forget to buy your tickets online and necessarily in advance otherwise you risk not being able to keep to the schedule you have in mind.

In the following I want to leave you with some historical facts about the Vatican.

A brief history of the Vatican

Despite the fact that the Catholic Church is millenarian, the Vatican State was only recognised as an independent state in February 1929, following the Lateran Treaty, a component of the Lateran Pacts, which was signed between King Victor Emmanuel III and Pope Pius XI. The Italian Parliament was to ratify the treaty in the summer of the same year, and Italy recognised the Vatican as an independent state and seat of the Holy See. In 1947, the Lateran Treaty was recognised in the Italian Constitution as the solution for relations between the Italian state and the Catholic Church.

The Swiss Guard has been protecting the papacy for over 500 years The Vatican has its own administration and legislation, its own currency, its own postage stamps and its own justice system. In addition, the Vatican has its own police, which is called the Gendarmerie Corps, as well as a fire brigade.
But the Pope is protected by the renowned Swiss Guard, which is the smallest army in the world. The Swiss Guard's origins as a security force for the papacy date back to the 16th century, when Pope Julius II made an alliance with the Swiss Confederation, reports Wanted in Rome. In 1506, the first contingent of 150 soldiers arrived in Rome and joined the papal guard.
Swiss Guard membership is restricted to unmarried, Catholic Swiss men between the ages of 19 and 30 who are at least 1.74 m tall. Guards serve between 2 and 25 years at the Vatican in the service of the pope and are independent of the Swiss armed forces, being employed directly by the Vatican state.

15 curiosities about the Vatican

1.The Vatican, with an area of just 0.44 km2, is, as I said, the smallest country in the world and the only one that can be crossed on foot in less than an hour.
2.The Vatican is probably the only nation in the world without a prison. Instead, the tiny enclave-state has several cells for pre-trial detention, reports TheVaticanTickets.com. Those sentenced to prison serve their time in Italian jails, according to the Lateran Treaty. The cost of incarceration is covered by the Vatican government.
3.The Vatican is home to fewer than 800 official residents, yet it has the highest crime rate of any country in the world. This is because it has more crime per capita, which is committed by the millions of tourists who pass through the area. The most common crimes are shoplifting, purse snatching and pickpocketing.
4.There is only one ATM here with Latin instructions, belonging to the Vatican Bank, which is probably the only ATM with Latin instructions in the world.
5.Due to increasing pollution in Rome, the Vatican Observatory has become increasingly difficult to use, being located about 25 kilometres outside the city. So in 1981, the Vatican bought a state-of-the-art telescope on top of Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona (USA).
6.Vatican residents do not pay taxes. Although it may seem strange for a state not to impose taxes on its inhabitants, this is a special situation. At the Vatican, entrance fees to the otherwise colossal museum, Vatican stamps and souvenirs bring in a significant portion of the revenue needed to run the Holy City. At the same time, the Catholic Church has more than a billion followers around the world who donate heavily.
7.The Vatican has its own football team. Called the 'Selezione di calcio della Città del Vaticano', it is made up entirely of Vatican employees. Police officers, postal workers and members of the Swiss Guard have all donned the yellow-blue-and-white kit, notes GrayLineRome.com. The Vatican national team was founded in 1972, but it was not until 1994 that it played its first international match, a 0-0 draw with San Marino's "B" team.
8.In the Vatican there is the shortest railway in the world, which is only 300 metres long and has only one station "Citta Vaticano". It was built between 1929 and 1934, during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI, to move popes from a station inside Vatican City to one in Rome, but over time it became more of a freight network.
9.Italy has more UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country in the world, but the Vatican is the only country to have been designated as a World Heritage site in its entirety, having been listed in 1984. The list includes both Vatican City and extraterritorial properties in Rome, such as St Peter's Basilica and Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore.
10.The Vatican is considered a wine capital. A Vatican resident consumes an average of 54.26 litres of wine each year, the highest per capita wine consumption rate in the world. It is twice the average in France and Italy, countries with great wine-growing potential.
11.After John Lennon's infamous "We're more popular than Jesus" statement, the Vatican has publicly condemned the Beatles. However, the enclave-state has forgiven the famous Liverpool band.
12.The Vatican has endorsed the Bond film Skyfall, saying the Bond character played by Daniel Craig is "more human", "less clichéd" and "less drawn to the pleasures of life".
13.The Egyptian Obelisk in the centre of St Peter's Square, in front of St Peter's Basilica, is between 3,000 and 4,000 years old. The red granite structure was made for an unknown pharaoh and remained in Egypt until 37 AD, when Emperor Caligula sent it to Rome.
14.The Borjo Passage is a narrow corridor above a high stone wall that is 800 metres long. It connects the Vatican to the nearby Castel SantʼAngelo. The passage was commissioned in 1277 by Pope Nicholas III and was an effective escape route in case the Vatican was besieged. For example, in 1494 it was used by Pope Alexander VI to escape with his life during the invasion of Charles VIII of France.
15.At the Vatican, citizenship is not automatically obtained at birth. Citizenship in the world's smallest state can only be acquired if two conditions are cumulatively met: the person concerned must hold an office in the Catholic Church and have permanent residence in the Vatican.

I hope you enjoyed the brief history and a few curiosities about the Vatican but now let's get in line and visit St. Peter's Basilica inside.

Very important access to the inside is free but you have to face quite a long queue, you know I thought twice whether to stand in line or not, but to my amazement it still went quite fast (about 30-40 minutes).

Once inside everything changes, I am speechless, and yes, it is impressive.

THE END!

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P.S. The attached pictures you have just seen are taken by me with my mobile phone(Samsung Galaxy S21), and the text is also designed by me and sources.

Yours @triplug😉

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