The Pilgrims' Road: Pantheon to St Peter's, on Foot

For centuries pilgrims arriving in Rome walked a specific route to St Peter's, and this walk follows it, which is why the order of the stops is not arbitrary. It begins at Piazza di Pietra, under the eleven surviving columns of Hadrian's temple, and goes to Sant'Ignazio for the flat ceiling painted to look like a dome. Then Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which holds Michelangelo's Risen Christ and the body of Catherine of Siena, and the Pantheon. After Piazza Navona the route turns into Via dei Coronari, and this is where the walk earns its title. The street is named for the rosary sellers who worked it, because it was the last stretch before the bridge and pilgrims bought their souvenirs here. Alongside them were businesses of a considerably less devotional kind, serving the same traffic. Then the Ponte Sant'Angelo, built as the approach to Hadrian's tomb and later the main pilgrim crossing, and Castel Sant'Angelo beyond it. Piazza Pia was where pilgrims gathered knowing they had nearly arrived. The walk ends at St Peter's Square, inside Bernini's colonnade, in front of the basilica built over the apostle's grave. Available as a shared group or as a private tour.