ARCHBASILICA OF ST. JOHN LATERAN, Holy Stairs

Many visitors enter the basilica from the back, passing under the loggia where the popes gave their blessings; instead, I suggest touring the square first, and then leaving it to enter from the main façade. So for the moment ignore the stern façade of the Lateran Palace which incorporates the basilica's cloister, and go to the building next to it that contains the Scala Santa, or Holy Stairs which were also built at the end of the 16th century when Pope Sixtus V had the entire architectural complex restored.

Inside you'll see several flights of stairs: the central one with steps covered with protective wood comes from as far away as Jerusalem. According to tradition, these steps belonged to the Praetorium, and Jesus had walked up them on his way to being judged by Pontius Pilate.

At the entrance of the precious chapel called Sancta Sanctorum you can see a Latin inscription which says, "There is no more sacred place throughout Rome". And in fact this chapel, founded 1500 years ago and reconstructed in the second half of the 13th century when the church was still the seat of the popes, can be considered no less than the model for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The most solemn ceremonies of the pontiffs took place here, and it preserved the church's most revered relics....