Today was the first time we didn’t wake up to an alarm clock. After six days of go go go, we needed some time to recuperate. I woke up at 11 and Sam didn’t get up until after 12. We washed some of our clothes in the sink and then went out to tour some churches. All the main tourist spots are closed. We ate pastries for breakfast that were really good. I guess it wasn’t really breakfast because it was 3pm.
The first church we went to was Santa Maria Maggiore, one of Rome’s oldest and best preserved (432A.D.) I was blown away by the churches in Florence and now that I saw some in Rome, Florence’s are nothing compared to them. Santa Maria Maggiore is actually part of the Vatican and very richly decorated. It has beautiful mosaics and pieces of the manger. (I don’t believe it.)
St. Peter in Chains has Michelangelo’s Moses. He is so beautiful. You look at him and can’t believe someone carved him out of marble. The church also has the chains that held Saint Peter. (I don’t believe that one either.)
San Clemente showed us the layers of Rome. A 12th century basilica sits atop of a fourth-century Christian basilica, which sits atop of a second-century Mithraic Temple and some even earlier Roman buildings. You enter the church and then go downstairs to the earlier church which still has some of the frescos. Then you go down more stairs and you are in the Mithraic Temple. It was really incredible.
San Giovanni in Laterano was the first Christian church built in 318 A.D. It is still a functioning church and mass was going on while we were there. Most of how it is decorated is from 1600. It does have golden columns from the Temple of Jupiter, pagan Rome’s holiest spot from 50 A.D. The church is just massive.
There was a market just outside San Givanni in Laterano, so we strolled through it and bought sandwiches and cannolis. I sure love cannolis. Then we took the metro back to our hotel so we could get our coats. We didn’t bring them because they were drying after last night’s soke in the rain. After we got our coats we took the metro to the Spanish Steps that have been there for 300 years. We then walked to the Trevi Fountain. It is really beautiful and very crowded. A flower seller pushed us into letting him take our picture, with my camera, and then we ended up paying him 3 E for a rose. We strolled back to Piazza Navona and had some roasted chestnuts on the way. On our way back to the hotel we looked at Trajan’s Column. It is 140 feet tall and is decorated with a spiral relief of 2,500 figures. They tell the story of Trajan’s conquest of Dacia.
The first church we went to was Santa Maria Maggiore, one of Rome’s oldest and best preserved (432A.D.) I was blown away by the churches in Florence and now that I saw some in Rome, Florence’s are nothing compared to them. Santa Maria Maggiore is actually part of the Vatican and very richly decorated. It has beautiful mosaics and pieces of the manger. (I don’t believe it.)
St. Peter in Chains has Michelangelo’s Moses. He is so beautiful. You look at him and can’t believe someone carved him out of marble. The church also has the chains that held Saint Peter. (I don’t believe that one either.)
San Clemente showed us the layers of Rome. A 12th century basilica sits atop of a fourth-century Christian basilica, which sits atop of a second-century Mithraic Temple and some even earlier Roman buildings. You enter the church and then go downstairs to the earlier church which still has some of the frescos. Then you go down more stairs and you are in the Mithraic Temple. It was really incredible.
San Giovanni in Laterano was the first Christian church built in 318 A.D. It is still a functioning church and mass was going on while we were there. Most of how it is decorated is from 1600. It does have golden columns from the Temple of Jupiter, pagan Rome’s holiest spot from 50 A.D. The church is just massive.
There was a market just outside San Givanni in Laterano, so we strolled through it and bought sandwiches and cannolis. I sure love cannolis. Then we took the metro back to our hotel so we could get our coats. We didn’t bring them because they were drying after last night’s soke in the rain. After we got our coats we took the metro to the Spanish Steps that have been there for 300 years. We then walked to the Trevi Fountain. It is really beautiful and very crowded. A flower seller pushed us into letting him take our picture, with my camera, and then we ended up paying him 3 E for a rose. We strolled back to Piazza Navona and had some roasted chestnuts on the way. On our way back to the hotel we looked at Trajan’s Column. It is 140 feet tall and is decorated with a spiral relief of 2,500 figures. They tell the story of Trajan’s conquest of Dacia.
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