Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore Tour
Although enlarged and redecorated, the basilica retains much of its original structure of the fifth century. In the years following the return of the papacy to Rome from Avignon, part of the church was used as a papal residence until the complete renovation of the Vatican palace. Admire its mosaics of the fifth century, a reliquary that is said to contain a piece of the crib that once held baby Jesus, an ancient icon of the Virgin Mary, the tomb of St. Jerome and the tomb of the artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.There is also the Sistine Chapel in the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, dedicated to Pope Sixtus V.
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Where this sits in Rome
Rome is about 33 min by road from Rome Fiumicino Airport. Three thousand years stacked on top of each other, still busy being a capital. Stay central and walk — the Forum, the Pantheon and a dozen churches worth the detour are closer together than the map suggests, and the city rewards wandering more than ticking off.
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