Roma a piede

It is only the second day and we are well on our way to seeing all of Rome! But first, let's finish up our first day.

After our afternoon blog session, we all had different agendas. Some slept, some wondered, all showered! Some of us walked to the Colleseum and past the Forum. Trying to comprehend all the things that have happened on that site in the last few thousand years was impossible. After the walk, we were ready for dinner. Some of us headed to Rinaldi's recommended by the hotel. We had a wonderful bottle of 1964 Guaste Barolo and some great entres, antipasta and pasta piatti. Seafood salad, melone e procuitto, lamb, spaghetti bolonese and gnocchi to name a few. A dinner in Italy is never complete until the biscotti and limoncello arrive! We definitely completed our meal.

I think all slept well. That is a good sign on the first night of a European trip. It was a long day.

We gathered at breakfast and headed back to see the inside of the Colleseum. We love our Roma passes! You skip all the lines and head right in. We enjoyed all of the sights and history of the Colleseum and headed to the Forum. Walking around in the heat and looking at all the ruins was fun, but draining. Scott helped out with the guide book and could keep us up with what we were seeing. After a long stroll walking through years and years of history, we headed back to lunch. We decided on a very Italian spot called the Corks Inn, a cute Irish pub close to the hotel. We had a nice lunch with salads and beer and Linda had the best cappuchino of her life! And she knows her cappuchinos! After lunch we made a quick stop at the hotel and then headed to the tour that we had scheduled to see Rome's underground churches.

We met Frederica near the Colleseum. It is a good thing our hotel is relatively close to the Colleseum, as many times as we have been there in 2 days! She walked us over to Basilica San Clemente. We saw the georgous church where the original "new" apse had not been changed. It was still in the style of the 1200's with the mosiac depiction behind the alter in amazing gold and blues and greens. The mosiac tiles then were made with a layer of glass, a layer of gold leaf and then another layer of glass. It was bright and stunning in the flat, simple style of the era. After seeing the "modern" church, we went below to see the church it had been built on. That structure had been built in the 4th to 6th century. As the Tiber flooded and the silt filled in, the church had been abandoned and another built on top. The Romans were the original recyclers and took pillars from the Forum to build this church. All around you could see pieces of marble gleened from other areas and buildings to make up this church. After seeing this church below a church, we went even lower to see the original church. In 1912, when the lowest floor was discovered and escavated, there was a spring found within the church and water still flows beneath the building. 800 traincar loads of dirt were removed to uncover the original church. It was facinating. Frederica was a great guide and very knowledgeable.

We then headed to the Basilica of Saint John and Paul. It sounds so much better as Giovanni and Paolo! Again we saw the current church, the lower level church it was built on and then the original structure below that. This church was really interesting also. It was originally an apartment building where there were businesses in the entry and living quarters behind. When this church began, it was only a few people meeting in someone's home. It was still illegal to be a Christian at that time. John and Paul were leading services, were found out and killed. 3 other saints, who tried to protect them were also killed, but the church continued on til today.

We stopped after our 3 hour tour, glad that it was mostly underground and cool. We did need to stop for a drink, however, and then hopped a bus back to the hotel. Needless to say, our feet feel the ground we covered today and yesterday! So far, 22,907 steps and we haven't thought about dinner yet! Added to yesterday's roaming, we are pushing 54,000 times that our tootsies have pounded the pavement. My dogs are barking!

The weather is hot and wonderful. A breeze can usually be found and a bicchera di vino biano is a welcome sight! Rome is a romatic city with couples close at every turn. We couldn't be in a better spot!