Today we hung close to home.... If you can call our hotel home, and toured Roma. Started off with a run in Roma. Breakfast was iffy, as last night we we informed that there was a strike on by the tourist industry so there wouldn't be breakfast served at the hotel. Those crazy Italians, by the time it was breakfast time, the strike was over.
Started the day at San Stefano Rotondo where the church was built to honor the first martyr, Saint Stephan. The church is laid out like MPB in the round and Father used to celebrate Mass here when he studied in Roma, which made celebrating Mass here very special. Our guide met us and told us more about the church. It was rather gory as there were paintings of various martyrs.... pretty brutal.
We then moved on to St. John Lateran, another large cathedral with some massive sculptures. Here I lit a candle for my dad as it's his birthday today. This is the so called "home" church of the Pope. Onward to the Colosseum. It seems that life here was pretty brutal and the early Christians were game in front of crowds of 70,000. I'm hoping we have advanced since those times.
The Forum was the next stop, pretty amazing as here were the ancient ruins of a bustling culture which were pretty well preserved.
Our final formal stop was the Piazza Di Spagna aka The Spanish Steps which at this time of day was bustling with groups. Oh my, did we forget to eat lunch and it's 3:00 so we followed Father Pat through the streets like the Pied Piper, right to a gelato shop. Who needs nutrition when you can have gelato?
A small group had a wonderful dinner with authentic great Italian pasta tonight. I had some wonderful cannelloni an d others had the carbonara. Mmmmm so good. Great tastes and somewhat lighter than our version. Of course we had dessert..... Laughed and laughed that my face and stomach hurt.
Looking forward to a day on our own tomorrow, no plans... Perhaps shopping, relaxing and reflecting. So much we've taken in, there has been little time to process.
Pictures:
San Stefano
St. John Lateran
The Colloseum
Gelato break
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