St. Clement

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St. Clement was a pope back in the days before they called them popes and when they sanctified all of the popes. The church is amazing. It dates back to the 12th century and is the 2nd coolest church I've seen, not only because of its beauty inside, but also because of what's underneath.

If you buy a ticket (of course) and walk down a flight of steps you find yourself walking around in a 4th century church. Kind of amazing, right? Well THEN, you walk down some more, scarier steps and here water coming in walls and find yourself in a 1st century church. That's right, I walked the original streets of Ancient Rome. Pretty cool. I couldn't spend a ton of time down there though because the stale air was kind of making me nervous and the extreme dampness was killing my knees. Yes, I'm an old woman.

We also saw some archaeology students working on recovering one of the super ancient frescoes on the wall down there. One of the oldest in Rome. As awesome a job as that is, I am so glad that I did not go into archaeology. The students were basically just slowly scratching at the wall with what looked like one of those metal dental picks. Basically a metal toothpick. Scratching at the wall all day long. No joke. Props to them to devoting their life to that because I sure never could.

Anyway, here's some pictures. (Turns out we weren't supposed to be taking pics of anthing past the first church, but we didn't realize that until afterward. Oh well, I got them anyway.) Ciao!

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Photos

St. Clement
This is from the little courtyard outside.

Inside
The 12th century church. Gorgeous.

The ceiling.
Pretty much amazing. I kind of want one.

One of many carvings
I think this is supposed to be St. Clement dying, but I can't exactly read Italian.

The floor
Even the floor is art. This is Latin. Sadly, I could not read it. It's been too long :(

The old temple
Down in the 4th century. Time machine buildings are cool.

Colosseum
Yes, I have lots of Colosseum pictures. They're fun.

Comments

[Uncle Dan Ruane]

Following your blog
Hi Trac, I'm following your blog since your Dad emailed the link to me. I'm already very envious. The pictures look great and you are providing great descriptions. I hope you have acclimated well to living away from home and that things, in general, are going well for you. Take care and I look forward to your next submission. Uncle Dan R