There's No Place Like Rome

We made it to Italy and had such a great time. Our taxi took us to the Hotel Columbus, which was walking distance to the Vatican. We were greeted by Father Donohoe himself! It was so refreshing to see someone we knew after being away from all of our loved ones for so long. After freshening up, we headed to the catacombs. We were very fortunate to get in, as they were just about to close for the day. We had a quick guided tour before heading to the Cathedral of St. Paul's outside of the wall (the wall surrounding Rome). We walked around admiring the beautiful scenery of this gorgeous cathedral.

We took a quick detour to this building with armed guards in the front (I have forgotten the name of this place - sorry!). We could not go inside, but you could look through the keyhole to see this beautiful sight (St. Peter's Basilica) - what a treasure!

Our next stop was the Pantheon. We took a quick walk-through of the Pantheon, as Tim and I have both been before, and had some wine at a nearby cafe in front of the Pantheon.

It was so fun to people watch - lots of interesting people in Rome (you can see from the pictures below).

This is our new friend - Medusa - too bad the picture does not show off her hat (that was the best part)

"Strike a pose, there's nothing to it - vogue, vogue, vogue..." Seriously - the woman to the right had my exact expression.

Then we headed to another cafe in front of the old Rome Stock Exchange before heading to dinner at one of Father's favorite Roman restaurant. It was so great to see and visit with him.

On Thursday, Tim and I woke up early and headed to the Borghese Museum to meet Father Donohoe and Magdalena (our tour guide). Magdalena was fantastic and incredibly knowledgeable. We saw great pieces of art, most notably were Bernini's sculptures - what talent!

Afterwards we went for an authentic pizza lunch before Father headed for a siesta. Siesta? What's that?! Tim and I had no time for that, as we headed to several churches that Father had recommended. I am bad with names, but I will try to remember. Our first stop was St. Clemente. This church was three levels, with the bottom two levels being underground. We did not have a guide for this, but were able to piece together as much as we could by reading the guide signs. I wish there was an audioguide we could have purchased, but they were not available at this particular church.

Unfortunately, I do not recall the name of the next church we went to (Tim does, but he is on the golf course at the moment so I cannot ask him), but it was in front of a large obelisk that came from Egypt (though there are about 30 of these in the city). The 12 apostles were all carved out of marble and surrounded the sanctuary. We later found out that these were all works of Bernini.

Our next church was St. Stephen Rotundo. They had apparently just refurbished this church, but we could not find any information explaining the frescoes. There was only one person who worked there and he spoke very little English (I think he only knew, "I do not speak English."). We later found out, after talking with Father Donohoe, that each of the frescoes depicted the stories of martyrs. Unfortunately, at the time, we had only recognized St. Peter. When we go back to Rome one day (if we go back one day, in the far off future that is) we will have to go back to be able to truly appreciate the frescoes.

Since we were close to the Coliseum, we headed in that direction to catch a taxi. We decided not to wait in the long line of the Coliseum since we did that the last time we were in town. We went back to the hotel and took naps as we were starting to feel the exhaustion of all that we had done the last couple of weeks. We were unfortunately too tired to meet with Father for dinner and grabbed a quick bite before heading back to bed. On our way back to the hotel, we decided to walk along the Tiber River to see the amazing view of St. Peter's - it is just so beautiful!

We woke up early on Friday to make the most of our last day in Rome. Father Donohoe recommended that we go to the Capitolini (spelling?) Museum so we did that before heading to our Scavi tour below St. Peter's. Luckily we purchased the audioguide and walked through to see all of the beautiful artwork. The tour was supposed to take two hours, but for some reason or another, it was taking us longer. Therefore we had to rush through the last 30 minutes to get it all in. We were in a rush because we had an 11:00 Scavi tour that we had to get to in time.

Capitolini

We felt very 'official' as we went to the Vatican't Excavation office. We had to show the swiss guards our paperwork that proved our admittance to the tour. I highly recommend this tour to anyone going to Rome. Unfortunately, not many people are aware of this tour, as they do not publicize it. So...if you are goign to Rome, get in touch with us and we'll tell you how to make your reservation (which must be done at least three months in advance, so plan accordingly).

The Swiss Guards

Let me give you some background: Our tour was of the Necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The definition of a necropolis is a city of the dead. Many people believe that this lower level of St. Peter's is underground, but in actuality, is not. It is full of mausoleums of all different religions (Egyptian, Pagan, Christian, etc.). The flooring is actually the same dirt that was there thousands and thousands of year's ago - just more compact from all of the footsteps that have crossed it's path. St. Peter's is built directly on top of this area.

We were actually able to see the area where St. Peter's bones are located - truly amazing! Pietro Zander wrote a book explaining this entire area and Angelo Card. Comastri wrote the preface where he said this: "One can almost hear the steps of those who, amidst tears, collected the body of the crucified Peter, wrapped it in hope and buried it in the Vatican hill side." I use his words because it is exactly how I identified this experience. Though it was not really marked and because of how the necropolis is situated and how visitors work their way through it, we could only see from a distance where his body rests. "Jesus told you: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Mt.16:18) Wow!

After our tour we walked back to Hotel Columbus to pick up our camera (it was not allowed on the Scavi tour). We then headed back to St. Peter's (good thing we were so close) and climbed to the top. Now...last time we were here, Tim was so sweet and purchased a ticket for the elevator (you still have quite a few steps to climb after that, but it still cuts down on all of those steps). This time - not so much! We climbed up the basilica and it took for ever! However, once you get to the top, you realize that it is totally worth it. We stayed up there for a while admiring the city of Rome and the Vatican. It's is so cool how the architects designed the piazza in front of St. Peter's into the shape of a keyhole (I just love that).

See how narrow it gets?

The 'keyhole'

Afterwards we went into St. Peter's to admire it's beauty.

Michelangelo's Pieta inside St. Peter's

We then rushed to the shops of Rome. Rome, unlike Florence, really doesn't have a strong market scene. They have occasional ones set up, but the ones in Florence are really good. I went to a couple of shops for gifts and Tim was able to find several places for tie bargains (his favorite). We kind of hurried with our shopping because we were meeting Father Richard and Father Bernie (Father's friend) for dinner and the day was getting away from us. We quickly got ready for dinner and met Father Richard in our hotel restaurant for cocktails.

We then headed to the restaurant (I wish I could remember the name, but it escapes me). It was phenomenal! I had a simple pasta dish and it was delish! Tim had a tasty veal dish that he loved just as much. It was interesting because we were the only ones in the restaurant other than the private party going on in the adjacent room. Come to find out, it was a dinner with most of Rome's dignitaries (mostly from the Roman government). Too bad we didn't know who any of them were!

Tim and I came home after dinner, but walked along the Tiber River for one more glance of St. Peter's Basilica from a distance. It was a Friday night and there were people everywhere. Too bad we were too exhausted to join in the festivities - we had to wake up bright and bushy-tailed for our flight the next morning.

We woke up early and got a car from the hotel to take us to the airport. Upon our arrival, we come to find out that our 10:00 flight had been delayed for 11:30. We were disappointed, but not too concerned until we found out that 11:30 was the boarding time - we were not scheduled to leave until 12:30! Luckily Rome's airport is fun to browse through. Unfortunately I could do no more shopping (and it was torturous since all of the stores were designer stores - Gucci, Furla, Valentino, the list really does go on). There's nothing wrong with window shopping! Unfortunately, we did not get on the plane until noon and I cannot even recall the time we actually took off, but I know it was well after 12:30. To make a long story short (ha ha - I can kind of do this), we landed in Atlanta at 5:10 and our flight to Birmingham was at 5:30. We still had baggage claim to go through (and to recheck our bags) and customs. Therefore we did not make it home until the 8:30 pm flight.

We got home to Birmingham at 8:30 (due to the time change, it was the same 'time' we took off). Tim's dad was sweet to pick us up and we headed to their house for a welcome home celebration and some turkey sandwiches. It was so great to see them and give them our gifts from Africa/Italy. However, nothing was as great as sleeping in our own bed!

Now...if we could just get over this jet-lag thing (I've been going on hour walks every morning from 6:00-7:00)!

I hope you've enjoyed being kept up to date with our travels. I wish I could say that you should stay tuned to more travel adventures, but I think it will be quite some time (if ever) we go on a trip as adventurous as this one. It truly was a trip of a lifetime for us and I enjoyed every minute of it with Tim!