On Friday morning, we woke up at 7:30am because we had a tour at 9am. Someone kept banging on the door of the hostel and ringing the doorbell, which turned out to be the hostel man. He was quite a character. He was a 60 year old Italian man who told us that he had eaten a little to much spaghetti. He only spoke Italian, so we communicated by speaking Spanish to him. He had a serious breathing problem that sounded like someone with only one lung. Poor guy. Anyways, he gave us a fabulous breakfast! Nutella-filled croissants that were fresh from the bakery down the street! Deeeeelicious! We got ready and went to our tour.
I set this up about 1 month in advance so that we could see the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica where they found the bones of the original St. Peter in the 1940s. The hill where St. Peter's Basilica was built was at one time a cemetary where they buried important rich people from the church as well as St. Peter. They know that it is the remains of St. Peter because they tested the bones and they are from a person from the Middle East. Also, the head and feet are missing which fits with what they know about Peter because he was killed by being hung upside down on a cross. After his death, they cut off his feet to get him down, so that's how his feet disappeared. His head is in a box above the altar of another basilica in Rome with St. Paul's head...more about this later. Peter's body was marked by the Trophy of Gaeus which is a two level grave-marker type stone. The whole necropolis is kept at 95% humidity to preserve it. We also saw lots of other mosseliums with other families buried in them. Our tour ended under the basilica in a room with a bunch of coffins of Popes. We saw Pope John Paul II's grave! I really liked him as a Pope, so this was very cool to see. There were lots of roses on it.
After the tour, we went to the post office to send some more post cards. The Canadian girls from the hostel told us of a good restaurant so we tried to find that for lunch. We walked over and asked some cute Italian boys for directions. They used our map and said "You are here" in their accent. (Our policy was that whenever we were lost, we find some good-looking boys to ask for help ;)). We finally found the restaurant, called Al Giardino del Gatto e la Volpe. It was really empty and an old Italian guy who had worked for the Italian government in America kept asking us questions. We ate lunch, which was okay and were on our way.
We metroed to the Trevi Fountain and threw our coins in. Contrary to what the movies tell you, throwing one coin into the Trevi Fountain guarantees that you will return to Rome, not that you will find true love. However, we are hoping for both! We walked to the US Bishop's Office for Visitors to the Vatican and picked up our tickets to go to Psalm Sunday Mass. We met lots of nice nuns and priests from Indiana who talked to us quite a while. One priest told us lots of stories about saints and their miracles. He also told us that Pope John Paul II will be beatified (the first step to becoming a saint) on May 1. His miracle was curing a French nun who had the same disease as he had which led to his death. One of the nuns explained to us that we could get an Indulgence (pardon from all of our sins from birth to that point in our lives) if we went to Mass, received Communion, had Reconciliation, said a Prayer for the Holy Father, and truly intended to change our lives within 8 days of visiting the Basilica. Lizzy and I went to Reconciliation, since that was the only one we would not be able to accomplish by going to Mass on Sunday.
We stopped at McDonalds to try to find WiFi, but had no luck. Outside there was this man using spray paint to paint this beautiful pictures of waterfalls and the Colliseum. It was so cool! If we did not have only a backpack to fit things in, we definitely would have bought one or two! We walked to Giolitti, the best gelateria in Rome according to our cab driver and got some real gelato! It was AMAZING! I don't know if I can ever eat ice cream again! I got Oreo cookie, white chocolate, and raspberry. The raspberry was my favorite! It was raining a bit outside and there were tons of people selling umbrellas. Lizzy was using mine and someone still came up to her and asked if she wanted one. She was like "I've got one, thanks!" We walked to the "Pantheon" and were surprised at how white it was. We thought they much white-wash the outside to keep it looking so white. There were two guards standing at the top by two flames. Inside, there was a museum about Italy and everything was in Italian, so we didn't understand too much. When we left the "Pantheon" we were shocked to see the Colliseum just down the road. We knew that they were close but did not think it was that close. We saw tons of Roman ruins on the way. The Colliseum was lit up with blue and yellow lights at night and it was GORGEOUS!
We were going to go out, but the bars recommended by my guidebook were not very promising so we stopped at a pizza-to-go store to get some supper. The man selling the pizza asked us, "Can I...make it hot?". We tried not to burst out laughing and answered yes. We walked all the way to our hostel and went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment