(They stroll back along Via Catone towards the wall that marks the boundary of Vatican City and approach the Porta Angelica where even now a few intrepid tourists have queued, sipping espresso, yawning and chatting quietly.
The four pass through the gate without challenge, and continue walking toward Bernini's colonnaded piazza San Pietro.)
Bernini
The most dramatic approach to the basilica is not this route, but along what is now the Via della Consiliazone. What a shame it is that this dictator, Mussolini, demolished the little streets of the Borgo with their charming, if decrepit buildings, just so that he could create an impressive avenue for his motorcade. The effect was much more inspiring when I built this. One would emerge from the narrow streets to the suddenly open space, the beautiful dome beyond the colonnade rising majestically, the arms of the church – my colonnade – reaching out to embrace you and welcome you to the calm of the piazza and the greatest church in Christendom.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_della_Conciliazione:
Demolition of the spina of Borgo began with Mussolini's symbolic strike of the first building with a pickaxe on October 29, 1936, and continued for twelve months. Even at the time, the demolition proved controversial, with many Borgo residents displaced en masse to settlements ("borgate") outside of the city.[14] Among the buildings dismantled, either totally or in part, and rebuilt in another position, were thePalazzo dei Convertendi, the house of Giacomo and Bartolomeo da Brescia, the Church of the Nunziatina, the palaces Rusticucci-Accoramboni, Cesi and degli Alicorni. Other buildings, like the palace of the Governatore del Borgo and the Churches of S. Giacomo a Scossacavalli and S. Angelo al Corridore, were destroyed. Facing into the cleared area are five other historical buildings, the Palazzo Giraud-Torlonia, the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, the Palazzo dei Penitenzieri, Palazzo Serristori, and Palazzo Cesi (which was mutilated).[15]
The construction of the road was only a small feature in the reconstruction of Rome ordered by Mussolini, which ranged from the restoration of the Castel Sant'Angelo, the clearance of the Mausoleum of Augustus, to the vastly more complicated site of the Via dell'Impero through Rome's ancient imperial remains. His plan was to transform Rome into a monument to Italian fascism.[16]
In five years, Rome must appear marvellous to all the peoples of the world; vast, orderly, powerful, as it was in the time of the first empire of Augustus.
Construction of the road continued long after Mussolini's death and the abolition of Italian Fascism. The obelisks along the road were installed in time for the Jubilee of 1950.[4]
The effect was to make one feel rewarded for trudging through the streets, past the meagre structural efforts of mere mortals, dramatically to be greeted by God's own gateway to redemption. Now the surprise is spoiled. Today you can see the colonnade from hundreds of metres away. Ah well, at least it is still standing. (They enter the piazza) And that feeling of peace remains.
Via Della Conciliazone, as seen from the dome of St. Peter's (wikipedia)
(As they approach the central obelisk, a lone figure approaches, extends his hand)
Picasso
One doesn't need god to be moved by this wonderful place.
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