Halloween Song

So the other day the kids were singing Jingle Bells. I tired to chime in by changing the words to a more Fall theme, but it wasn't coming together right. RJ took over and let his creative juices flow. After perfecting it a few times he came up with this cleaver rhyme to the tune of Jingle Bells:

Halloween, Halloween, Is the best time ever.

Jumping in the leaves is fun, But a scare is so much better.

Prayer is Simple and Very Powerful!

In Christ, you find peace! I just had a very simple non-monumental experience where I need peace, and I needed it fast. And through simple prayer, I received it. Believe and Receive. Miracles happen everyday.

Day 4 - Rome, Italy

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.

And these photos were taken for Molly,
When we walked by this restaurant we thought of nothing but you!

Day 3 - Rome, Italy

Tuesday, March 22

Jared was supposed to have meetings in the morning but have most of the day off. So I slept in, got ready, and made it down to breakfast just as they were getting ready to clean up. After breakfast, I went and checked on Jared, who was out in the lobby chatting to some other nuclear folks. He said that he would be just another 30 minutes. So I took his IPad from him and went back up to the hotel room and spent 45 minutes playing in the internet. I was about to go back down to the lobby before he walked through the door, saying he was sorry and he had to attend some other meetings. Well, I wasn't about the spend my time in Rome alone in a hotel. All the other wives were already off doing something and there was no way to contact them. Jared didn't like the idea of me walking around Rome alone. I probably won't have liked the idea myself but after walking around the city before I felt very comfortable. The people are very friendly, outgoing, and most of them speak English. I reassured him I would be just fine and we checked to see if our text messaging would work. They did but I'm sure they cost a pretty penny. So I took off on the metro with my cell phone and Jared was going to text me when he was able to leave.

There was a large park that reminded me of the Golden Gate park (size wise) that I wanted to check out, so I headed that direction. At the bottom of the park was a large square called Piazza del Popolo (People's Square). It is surrounded by walls with an arch entrance that was built in 220 BC which was one of the main entrances into Rome. (I didn't realize that until I looked it up, so I don't have a photo.) On the other side of the square are two symmetrical churches, the Santa Maria dei Miracoli and the Santa Maria in Montesanto. They were built in 1658 and the street between leads straight into the heart of Rome. There is also an obelisk in the middle of the square that was taken from the Sun Temple in one of the oldest cities in Egypt and placed in the Circus Maximus after Rome conquered Egypt. In 1589 the Pope had it moved to this square.

This was a little scary to see on the side of the Church just before entering.

And here is a tomb inside the church that that filled me with reverence and broke my heart a little. I am assuming that mother and child died at child birth and were laid to rest inside. I am not sure since I can't read Italian or Latin which ever is was.
I looked up the words above the tomb "Post Tenebras Spero" and they mean "After darkness, I hope for light" I am curious to know who this lady was and her importance to be laid to rest inside a church.


The all seeing eye. This was on the one of the outer walls of the square.

I sat at the base of the obelisk and had my lunch that I brought with me while listening to some musicians play.



After my lunch I headed east to the park. I stopped to take a picture but a street vender spotted me as a tourist and got in my way. I was warned not to take roses from street venders and that was what this man was trying to sell me. He told me roses were good luck and tried to force it in my hand. All I could do was repeatedly say no thank you and final had to walk away.

Pincio Gardens:

This was a clock that worked by the weight of water. It was pretty cool.

Jared texted me before I got too far into the park. He didn't like the thought of me walking around Rome alone so he left his meetings. We decided to meet at the Spanish Steps. This is the view over looking Rome as I walked towards the Steps.

The Spanish Church

The Spanish Steps are said to be the widest steps in Europe and they were full of people coming and going or just having an afternoon break.

Jared and I wanted to find an ancient bath house, not realizing that there weren't any left. We were directed to an area that used to house a bath. As we walked we found the Planetario, it was closed by two days. I can just imagine how cool that would have been.

This is the Santa Maria degli Angeli. It was a beautiful church designed by Michelangelo and was built inside the walls of the ancient Baths of Diocletian. There was a really cool meridian line on the floor of the church used as a sundial. I didn't get a picture of it because it was so large I wasn't sure how to photograph it. But it was pretty neat.

The outside walls of the church, part of the walls of the Bath house

We walked past McDonald's as we headed back to the metro. Check this out, Kiwi on a stick. Why doesn't our McDonald's sell these?

We were supposed to go out to dinner with the entire conference. It was pretty costly for a spouse ticket. We were running short on time and tried to check or connecting metros as fast as possibly to be able to change at the hotel before the buses left. However we made our last connection in too much of a hurry and didn't realize that we were boarding the express metro that didn't stop until it was pretty far outside the city. I think we were about an hour outside the city once we final stopped. We found ourselves in a small metro train station in a small town where little English was spoken and hardly nothing was open. We weren't too sure when the next train to Rome would come so we stayed in the station. It was another hour and half before one arrived. And then another hour to get back into Rome. Needless to say we were late for our dinner and we couldn't get a reimbursement. We were told we didn't miss much, it definitely was an experience.