The Pope's Backyard: From St. Peter's to the Bridge of Angels

Via della Conciliazione

The broad ceremonial avenue Mussolini cut through a medieval neighborhood to link the Vatican to the Tiber.

This wide boulevard under your feet did not exist before 1937. Until then, the approach to St. Peter's was a maze of narrow medieval streets, the Borgo Vecchio and Borgo Nuovo, that opened suddenly onto the square, a dramatic reveal that architects and pilgrims had loved for centuries. Benito Mussolini ordered the whole neighborhood demolished.

His government cleared twenty-eight acres, displaced thousands of residents, and drove this straight avenue from the Tiber to the basilica, naming it Via della Conciliazione to mark the 1929 Lateran Pacts that settled the long standoff between Italy and the Holy See. The avenue was finished for the 1950 Holy Year. Look at the lampposts. They are shaped like the obelisk in the square behind you, a detail most people walk right past.

When you reach the second side street on your right, turn into Borgo Pio.

Borgo Pio

A cobbled pedestrian lane that survived Mussolini's demolition, where Swiss Guards still shop for groceries between trattorias and gelaterie.

This is Borgo Pio, a street the wrecking balls of the 1930s never reached. While the medieval Borgo around it was flattened to build Via della Conciliazione, this lane kept its old rhythm. Pope Sixtus V laid it out in 1565 as a direct link between St. Peter's and Castel Sant'Angelo, and for centuries its shops served the Vatican household: tailors, cobblers, bakers.

Swiss Guards still walk here in civilian clothes, shopping for groceries at the Carrefour on Via di Porta Castello or picking up a coffee before their shift. The street is closed to cars, so the noise is voices and the scrape of chairs at the trattorias that line both sides. Toward the far end you will see a high brick wall with a covered walkway on top. That is the Passetto di Borgo.