There are a lot of churches in Rome (in Naples and Palermo, too). A lot. We made it a priority to visit a select few of them, specifically the four major basilicas. A basilica is a church designated as important or significant by the Pope. Exactly four of them are considered major basilicas of the Catholic Church, and all four are found in Rome. Each is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and free to visit.
First, we headed to Arcibasilica di San Giovanni in Laterano (Arch Basilica of St. John Lateran). This is the seat of the bishop of Rome, i.e. the Pope’s church. We went on a weekday morning, taking the metro to the San Giovanni station and then walking a few blocks down the street.
Aside from the size and beauty of the church, this one stood out as having a lot of seating. Hundreds of chairs were set up in the nave, which is good because of the number of tour groups present. This is a very, very popular basilica to visit.
We started on the right side, walking down the aisle, past the chapels, and smack into a souvenir store. The prominent sign ensures the door to the store is not to be missed. This was the first, but not the last, church with a souvenir store in it.
Skipping the souvenir store we continued to the transept and apse, then around to the chapels on the opposite aisle. We passed a dedicated quiet chapel, suppressing the urge to go sit inside it for a while to get away from the other tourists.
For €3 one can visit the cloisters, but we skipped it. No particular reason, we just did not feel like it.
Thirty minutes later we walked back to the metro for a journey to the Termini station and a short walk to Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore (Basilica of St. Mary Major). This basilica is near the city center, making it popular with tour groups.
It, too, has a souvenir store accessible from inside the church.
To us what stood out about Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore was not the tour groups, though there were plenty of them, but several priests roaming the nave happily answering questions and talking to tourists.
I was tempted to ask one if this was some type of penance or punishment, but decided against it. Making a joke with a priest in a foreign language in a church probably isn’t smart.
Basilica Papale San Paolo Fuori le Mura (Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls) is several miles outside of the city center of Rome, reached by taking the metro to the Basilica San Paolo stop. As it is off the beaten path, this basilica is not run over by tour groups. In fact, we saw only about 10 other folks at the basilica during our weekday afternoon visit.
We first walked around a large courtyard and portico with a statue of St. Paul in the center before making our way to the entrance. The interior of the basilica is wide open, making it feel immense. After walking around the interior a few times we headed towards the exit.
The exit leads directly to an adjacent bookshop and café, which you cannot avoid. I suspect that tourist visits here really pick up in the summer.
We found Basilica Papale San Paolo Fuori le Mura to be strikingly simple and beautiful. It was, by far, our favorite of the three basilicas discussed in this post. We even paid €4 each to visit the cloisters and several small rooms with religious artifacts. I’m not sure it was worth it, but that’s okay.
The fourth major basilica is technically not in Rome, but Vatican City. We will cover our visit to Basilica di San Pietro (St. Peter’s Basilica) in our next post on Vatican City.
Garrett and Stephanie
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Thank you so much for all three parts of your visit to Rome. I am going next April, and, although I have been before, you gave me some ideas of things to see that I missed the last time. As a retired English teacher, I must tell you that I really enjoyed reading your narrative; you write extremely well. It was both informative and interesting. Keep up the good work.
Thanks! Several more posts on Rome are still to follow. I hope you enjoy your upcoming trip.