Pilgrimage on wheels: Hop on, hop off to see Rome's Christian sites

Published: 2005-07-15

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican and the city of Rome have joined forces to showcase Rome's Christian heritage by offering a bus dedicated to visiting some of the city's major spiritual sites. With so many basilicas and sanctuaries scattered across the city, tourists can now hop on special yellow and white, double-decker buses for a specially catered pilgrimage on wheels. It is called "Roma Christiana," or Christian Rome, and it makes stops at seven unique attractions, including St. Peter's Basilica, the Colosseum and the basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. But it also offers pilgrims a chance to investigate places most often missed during a typical Roman holiday, like the churches of St. Peter in Chains, San Clemente and Santa Maria in Aracoeli. The "Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi," a Vatican-related pilgrimage agency, and Rome's urban bus system unveiled the new bus April 7, just a few days after the death of Pope John Paul II.

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