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First view
I kept my head down until Dennis told me to look up so my first view was this exactly! Hey Everyone,
Well our journey and adventure together is definitely coming to an end unfortunately. But not without a whole lot of fun and excitement!
So the last you heard we were doing laundry after just returning home from Pisa. Well, that day was our ancient Rome day. We started off by buying a Roma pass that gave us free/cheap entrance into museums and free transportation for the next three days.
We started at the Colloseum. It was amazing! It is crazy to think that this ginormous structure has been standing since about 80 AD. Crazy! It is too bad that us Catholics stole all of the marble to make the beautiful St. Peters or this would likely still be so amazing. We walked around and Kim got a map of ancient Rome as they believe it was. A future classroom poster. We then walked across the road taking a look at the Arc de Constantine on our way to Palentino Hill. We explored the ruins of the impressive houses of the emperors and rich on Palentine Hill. It is really pretty and covered in trees. It overlooks the forum and circus maximus and the colloseum so
Inside the Colesso
Isnt it great? Thats where all the gladiators were, even Russel Crowe. pretty nice views. We then walked through the Roman Forum including stops as the various temples, the senate, and the funeral pyre of Julius Caesar. They still put flowers on it even to this day.
We then went into the little tiny church above the cell where they believe they held St. Peter and Paul captive. And we got to go down into the cell. Very cool. We walked into Piazza de Campidoglia in front of the Vittorio Emanuel Monument thing on Capatolini Hill and then to Trajans Column, which now has St. Peter on it and looked around the Trajans and Augustus forums. We also looked at the marketplace of Trajan. We went and grabbed a bite to eat before taking the metro to the Vatican. We wanted to go souvenir shopping but everything was closed so we called Mama and Papa Andrews before taking pictures of St. Peters at night. We then went to the Spanish steps at night and the coolest thing happened. A real live German oompa band came to the steps just after we sat down at the fountian at the bottom and they started singing and dancing. It was so cool. After a
St. Peters at night
Sooooo pretty. We loved it here, we walked around in the square just taking it all in. bit we left, Kim got a pretty fake prada bag and we went to bed.
So Kim is going to take over and I am going to talk to Laura on msn...ciao for now...
Hey guys! Alright, so what did we do yesterday? We started off by going to 10:00 Pentecost mass at St. John Lateran basilica, which is the Popes official church. Unfortunately, Benny was not celebrating mass, but it was a high mass, with a beautiful choir, incense, a ton of priests and bishops and the like, and lots of people. It was a great mass, one of our best experiences. Next, we headed to the Scala Santa which is the Holy Stairs. Its right across from John Lateran and it is supposedly the stairs from Pilates praetorium in Jerusalem that Jesus would have climbed. They are marble stairs encased in wood with places you can see blood spots on. Unfortunately, you can only ascend the stairs on your knees to the Holy Sacrament, and since there are 28 stairs added with prayer time on each, it leads to an exhausting and sweaty adventure in the heat. But we made it to the top, bought a
Spanish Steps
This is supposed to be the nicest part in Rome. The oompa band was at the bottem behind this photo. crucifix for our new home in the gift shop, and meandered over to the Vatican for some souvenier shopping. We got some gifts for people, which will remain a surprise until we get home!
Then we walked to the Piazza Navona from the Vatican, got some fantastic gelati, and admired Berninis fountains. We then walked to the Pantheon, with its awesome dome and hole in the roof and saw Raphaels grave. Then, off to Hadrians column and the Musei Capitolini so we could see some awesome sculptures and paintings with our free Rome pass. We saw the giant head of Constantine and his feet and bicep. Our pictures will show you the size. After that our feet were super tired, so we grabbed some dinner and headed to the Colesso at night. It was great! Beautiful. The lighting is done really well there. After that we just headed home and hit the hay.
Today.. well lets just say.. when it rains in Rome.. it POURS! We left our hostel n morning sunshine to head to St. Mary Major, a patriarchal basilica in Rome, before walking to the Spanish steps in day time, and then we got a craving
St. John Lateran
The popes personal church. for Mcdonalds, so we went inside to eat. When we came out... it was POURING! We did not have our rain coats, I had a white skirt, and we had nothing to protect us. We grabbed our poncho garbage bag things, took the metro home, quickly changed and grabbed our coats, and ran to the Pantheon to see the rain coming through the roof. It was still raining when we left, even when we went to the Trevi in the day time, but let up by the time we went through a few more churches. It certainly cooled off the city though. We just got home from going to St. Clements church, which is a 12th century church, on top of a 4th century church, on top of a pagan temple, on top of a 2nd and 1st century Roman home.
Either way, we hope it doesnt rain tomorrow morning while we wait in line for the Vatican museums. If we dont write again, thanks for reading our blog and helping us to not miss home with all your comments and prayers. We will see you all VERY soon! Pray for our safe journey!
Yours in Christ,
Marcus Agrippa built this...
The Pantheon, or the temple of all gods. But now for only one. Kim and Dennis
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Mom and Dad
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All things must end!
Can't believe you could remember how to spell all the places or did you have cheat sheets? Dad says "time to come home." We miss you and can't wait to see you. Clean room and clean sheets waiting for you.