St. Paul's Outside the Walls & Protestant Cemetery

We had the chance to see St Peter’s, now it was time to see the church that was built on the spot that Paul was supposedly buried. (It’s outside the old Roman wall, hence the name “outside the walls.”) Before we went in, Dr. Holzapfel gave an excellent lecture on Paul. This church is very different inside from St. Peter’s. I actually liked it better. One guide book we have says that it seems almost severe compared to St. Peter’s. I would say simpler, cleaner, less ornate. We also had the chance to visit the cloister—a small, quiet courtyard where the monks/priests would go to ponder, meditate & study. It has some nice mosaics and lots of flowers.

Afterwards we were able to go to the Protestant Cemetery to see the graves of the poets John Keats and Percy Shelley. It’s a lovely English style cemetery just outside the Roman wall with lots of shade and benches. It’s still in use today, in fact, while in the little bookshop I read all the criteria that must be met to be buried there (actually you have to be cremated and just have your ashes buried). Things like you must be a citizen of Italy or certain European countries, a non-Catholic, and living in Italy at the time of your death. There were age restrictions, spouse restrictions, all kinds of things. Silly me, I just thought you had to be dead and have someone buy you a plot to be buried in a cemetery!