Spanish Steps novel, "Tender Is the Night". The Steps are featured in Anthony Burgess's 1977 novel, "Abba Abba". Spanish Steps The Spanish Steps () are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church at the top. The monumental stairway of 174 steps (the slightly elevated drainage system is often mistaken for the first step) was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s bequeathed funds of 20,000 "scudi", in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish Embassy, and the Trinità dei Monti church
Capital punishment in Vatican City Capital punishment in Vatican City Capital punishment in Vatican City was legal between 1929 and 1969, reserved for attempted assassination of the Pope, but has never been applied there. Executions were carried out elsewhere in the Papal States during their existence. The death penalty had support from early Catholic theologians, though some of them such as Saint Ambrose encouraged members of the clergy not to pronounce or carry out capital punishment. Saint Augustine answered objections to capital punishment rooted in the first commandment in "The City of God". Augustine's argument is as such: "Since the agent of authority is but