Day 2 - Rome, Italy

Monday, March 21st

Jared's conference officially started and he had meetings all day. I meet up with a small group of wives and husbands and we walked the city. I already knew one of the other wives, Annette Morrell, who lived in Idaho. Her daughter was RJ's favorite babysitter. It was fun to visit with them again. One of the husbands from our little group was our tour guide. He knew the city well since his wife was a Roman. They now live in DC but they visit Rome once our twice a year and he is studying and writing a book on various churches in Rome.

A lot of the street corners used to hold pagan gods and goddess. Now they have all been Christianized like this one. Do you still consider this idol worship?


The Vatican is to the right and the wall on the left
was used as an escape route for the Pope long ago.

The Vatican:

The four windows on the middle row with the yellow shades are supposedly the Pope's apartment. The Pope was out in the courtyard on Wednesday morning but we didn't make it back over here to see him.

These guys are all over Rome looking for some extra cash. All you have to do it take a picture with them and then they will be bagging you for money.

Another Romulus and Remus maker

Over the Tiber River

The Castle of Santa Angelo

City street of Rome. Just about everyone in Rome lives in Apartment complexes.

One of the Churches we stopped and visited:

Inside was a Crystal Coffin.

The Sacred Area of Largo Argentina:
This area housed four Roman Temples and Pompey's Theater

We stopped for lunch and I had my first Italian Pizza which was pretty good. Not outstanding. A personal pizza is large enough for two.
I took a picture of the toilet in the restaurant to remember the toilets in Rome have no seats.

Another stop we made was for some gelato. I had my first gelato (biscotti flavor) in Rome and was unbelievably delicious!


An Ancient Apartment Complex:

Another view of the Roman Forum, this was my favorite place in Rome.

The Romulus and Remus symbol in hedge form.

The Mamertine Prison:
This is the place where Peter and Paul were said to be imprisoned.

Another view of the city street.

Drinking Foundation


Church of Santa Maria Maggiore:
This was our tour guide, Skip's, favorite church. He thought it was the most beautiful church in Rome. I however didn't find it that grand.

Inside is said to hold the wood that made up Christ's manger. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I believe that one. Many people come here to worship it. (Another example I see as an old Pagan tradition intertwined as Rome converted to Christianity)

The back side of the church.

Basilica Di Santa Pudenziana:

This church was a gem which we would have never known about without our tour guide's knowledge of the area. It is one of the oldest Christian churches in Rome. It was built in the 2nd Century over an old Roman Bath House and is now home of the National Church of the Philippians.

This is the oldest Mosaics in Rome dating back to 390 AD. It was beautiful.

Crypts in the church:

Old European Churches are so dark. It was weird for me to see the bones and skull symbol inside churches and see many crypts and grave makers. But then I started thinking about modern cemeteries and realized most of them are in courtyards next to church buildings and realized that there really was no such thing in the Romans culture. It is part of their culture to be buried inside a church. It is an honor for them. And many of the larger churches contain side chapels that families buy to be buried in. I assume that this helps the individual churches financially, as well. Once I had this thought the crypts and gravestone didn't seem as dark and Gothic to me.

This is a fresco of two sisters collecting blood from the martyrs. It is said that this was the church where many martyrs were brought and hidden by these two sisters, one of which was the church named after.

Below is where the blood soaked rags were held.

The drains in Rome

Back at the hotel I took a little rest. My back hurt really bad after so much walking on the uneven pavement. Once Jared's meetings were over, we took a Taxi back into the city and had them drop us off at the Pantheon. It was closed so we couldn't go inside. But we set off and walked the streets looking for the famous fountains and stopping for some delicious pizza (it was so much better then what I had at lunch, and much better then I ever had in the States) and yummy gelato (Coconut and Chocolate this time, mmmmmm)!

We saw Geppetto himself at this little wood shop, however he went in the back before I could get a picture of him. But we did get a little Pinocchio puppet.

The smallest deliver truck we have ever seen.
Guess you need something this small to maneuver through the narrow streets.

The Trevi Fountain:

It was very beautiful and very crowded!! We saw someone purpose here as well.


Fountain of Neptune:

The Fountain of the Four Rivers: