A Rainy Last Day in Rome

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June 11th 2008

Published: June 11th 2008

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NicoleandRyanPendleton

Ryan with his gelato after the rain

Sunday, June 8- A rainy last day in Rome

After it finally stopped raining this morning and afternoon, we decided to head into Rome for an early dinner (which doesn’t exist here!) and to possibly check out another church or two. We found the place we wanted to eat but they didn’t open until about 7:30 (it was almost 6:00.) We headed down to San Giovanni in Laterno. This is considered “Rome’s church.” It is actually one of the four churches for those that are on pilgrimage to visit. There was mass going on at the time but walking around the church was amazing. The entire ceiling was covered with gold and paintings. The 13 apostles line the high altar and the skulls of St. Peter and Paul are in an area above the high altar. The church was again very over the top but beautiful. There were chapels within the church that would be an entire church back home! It was very neat to see all of the confessionals throughout the basilica also.

After we left the church, we headed over to another area that is still considered this church. This area is called the Scala Santa. These

Nicole with her gelato

“Holy Stairs” are said to have been walked by Christ during his trial in Jerusalem. The stairs were moved here to Rome. There were many pilgrims climbing the stairs in prayer on their knees. It is said that for every stair ascended, they will be out of purgatory for nine years. There are also two chapels at the top of the stairs. One is no longer in use but the Catholics most treasured relics were kept in this chapel until they were moved to the Vatican in the early 1900s. The other chapel is in service now and again, there was mass going on. Seeing everyone on their pilgrimage was quite amazing. We understand that they are getting much more out of the sights we are seeing but it is just an amazing thing to see.

After the basilica and Holy Stairs, it was time to eat. We told a very affordable little trattoria just down a street from the Coliseum. The workers were all pretty feisty as a storm was getting close. They were all trying to put the awnings over the tables to keep everyone from getting soaked. They managed to cover the entire area outside except

This is lasagna?

It looks like canneloni! That's why every night's lasagna is a new dish!

our table. Lucky for us, the table next to us left before our second course and it didn’t start raining again while we were still sitting there. We both had lasagna for the first course and Ryan had fried calamari and shrimp for his second course. Nicole even tried the calamari- although she still hated it!

After dinner, we had to have gelato one more time. We headed toward another gelateria that was very close to Giolitti and ended up heading back to Giolitti again. Unfortunately, we didn’t beat the rain this time! Although we weren’t completely soaked, we were wet. Luckily, the gelato made everything ok! Nicole had white chocolate and chocolate and Ryan had banana and caramel with whipped cream. It stopped raining just in time for us to walk back to the bus. We had to walk a lot slower this time; the cobblestone is VERY slippery when wet! It was a very nice final walk for us through Rome. There weren’t near the crowds on the rainy Sunday evening. Everything was lit up and it was almost like the city was all ours for the night.

We’ve had quite the honeymoon but we are