Travel Tips

When my sister and I were here in 1997, we were lucky to get a private tour of the top floor and roof at St. Ignatius. Did you know that Galileo stayed here when in Rome? He had (and it's still there) an observatory on the roof of the church. These photos were taken in the top floor, which was a private area for popes and others to meet and pray. This pic looks like a marble doorway and stone mosaic wall with a painting hanging on it, right? It is all trompe l'oeil [sp]! Just like the ceiling in the church itself, this is all painted to look like something else. Amazing!!

This is one of the private chapels on the same floor above the church proper. That's all gold leaf you're looking at.

...and this is the private kneeler of Pope Pius IX. He was called Pio Nono, which is what is embroidered on the kneeler and if you look very closely you can see Pio Nono embroidered on it.
Pio Nono is the Pope who adopted a little jewish boy (Eugenio) who was kidnapped from his parents by the papal guards. He raised him as a catholic and Eugenio eventually became a priest. In spite of pleas from Eugenio's parents, Pio Nono would not return their son to them... if they had converted to catholicism he would have returned Eugenio to them, but they refused, and so Pio Nono would not return him to his parents..... This is so amazing to me!! I've been reading a bit about some of our popes and what I've read so far has been an eye opener....just plain amazing!