Join professional Rome tourist guide Stuart Harvey for a journey through 2000 years of Christianity as we explore the art and history of the spectacular St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.  Its origins take us back to the tradition that St Peter was crucified upside-down by the Emperor Nero and buried in the nearby necropolis. 

In the second lecture, we discover The Borghese Gallery houses what is arguably one of the greatest collections of art in the world.  In the early 1600s Cardinal Scipio Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V, amassed an incredible collection of ancient sculptures and renaissance art, including works by Titian, Botticelli and Raphael. Scipio added to this by commissioning statues from Bernini and buying up works by Caravaggio, Domenichino and other contemporary artists of the day.