Life in the Wight House: Day 4

Wednesday, March 23

I was on my own again Wednesday morning. Instead of waiting around for Jared, I headed back into the city alone. My first stop was back to the Pincio Gardens. There was a Temple and pond I saw on the map that I wanted to find. I very much enjoyed my quite stroll through the gardens as I tired to navigate my paper map and not look too touristy.

I finally found what I was looking for.
The Temple of Aesculapius, Villa Borghese, Rome
It was a very pretty area where you could rent a canoe and enjoy the afternoon.

After the park, I got on the Metro and headed back towards the Colosseum. I wanted to find the church that was said to house the chains of St. Peter, but I got a little side tracked. As I was walking down the road a man stopped me and asked for the time. I forgot that 1 pm was really
13 o'clock and ruined my cover. Yes, I am an American! He talked with me for a little bit about what I should see in Rome and the wine I should taste. I think he was offering his services as a tour guide, but I wasn't so sure as his English wasn't perfect. Jared text-ed me during this conversation saying his meetings were over and asking which metro station I was closest to. I explained to the cute Italian that my husband will be meeting me soon. He walked me towards the metro station and then took off. It wasn't 5 or 10 minutes later that I realized that I was possibly being hit on. With 45 minutes to spare, I walked back over to the Roman Forum and walked around the opposite side of the grounds from where Jared and I walked our first day in Rome. The Roman Forum was my favorite place in Rome.

Arch of Constantine

(View of the Forum from the street)
I am amazed at how the ancient ruins are right there with modern everyday live.

An indent in the stone road from a chariot.

Palatine Hill:
I believe the following ruins were part of the Flavian Place,
the residential complex of the Roman Emperors

Marble flooring

View of the Colosseum

Stadium of Domitian:
Domitian, was a Roman Emperor (51-96 AD) who had a passion for sport. He implemented the Capitoline Games in 86 AD which were similar to the Olympic Games. Held every four years, the games included various athletic events and chariot races. Gladiator fights, including ones between female and dwarf gladiators were also held.

This semicircular structure looked out onto the stadium.

After walking around Palatine Hill, I met Jared at the Metro and we walked around the Circus Maximus, which really isn't anything now except a big field. Then we tired to find the Church of St. Peter in Chains, but got our directions mixed up. Along the way we found some other interesting churches.

First we stopped in a market down a side ally. This is a picture of spices for sale. We bought some pasta here, multicolored spaghetti and some orange flavored linguine noodles.

This looked interesting so we decided to check it out.

Once inside the arch ways we found ourselves in a courtyard outside a Monastery. There were several doors one had a sign and at the bottom of this sign in English it read "Ring the Bell to Visit. Your Offering is Appreciated." So I rang the bell. And next to a wall was a gated window and the window was shut. Upon ringing the bell a noun opened the door, scared me to death and said 1 Euro please. We asked what we were visiting and she directed us to the door behind us and said to pay 1 Euro and go through the door. So we thought, why not and did as we were told.

Behind the door was a chapel. No cameras were allowed. The walls were covered with frescoes that were very old and we stayed inside looking at them for a little while before heading out.

After following our map some more we came to this church which we thought was St. Peter in Chains, however we were wrong. It looked very similar to the church from the outside. (We were on the back end, apparently) The church is called Papal Arch-basilica of St. John Lateran. We didn't know at the time that this was the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome and ranked highest of all the Catholic Churches, higher then St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It was indeed a gorgeous church and we only walked through part of it. If we had known how important this church was we might have walked around in it longer, apparently is contains a beautiful courtyard as well. It was massive with many hallways and chapels, full of gold and marble.

(this is the back of the church)

And check out this door!

Once we left the church we looked at the map again to determine where we were. We discovered we had gone in the complete opposite direction of where we were trying to get. As we set course again we came across this city playground. Again it is crazy how modern day life is surrounded by ancient life. How cool would it be to play at a playground surrounded by ruins!

And we also stopped at this little bakery and picked up some delicious treats.
I just LOVE European sweets!

We made it to St. Peter in Chains 5 minutes after the church closed. So we sat on the steps and watched the sun set while enjoying our cookies.

We then walked back towards the Colosseum to see it all lite up at night.

And finally we headed towards the Jewish Ghettos of Rome. There we had one of the most amazing pasta dishes on earth. I wish I could recall the Restaurant's name, but it was divine! I can't remember what Jared ate but I had some sort of Pumpkin Tortellini with the most delicious sweet white cream sauce. MMMMMMM, It was to die for, Jared and I seriously licked that plate clean.