Advertisement
Published: October 8th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Appia Antica - Appian Way
you can see just how narrow this street is. The cobblestones seen here aren't the original, you'll see those much farther up the road...keep walking and walking and walking The weather looked to be decent so after a breakfast of pancakes (Lizzie had mini chocolate chips in hers) and bacon, we took the local train to Rome. Lizzie still was feeling lousy and opted to stay home.
We took the local train to the Ostiense station, walked a few block off course and missed the visitor's center that had maps and info. I had read somewhere that on Sundays, the Appian Way was closed to cars, wrong. There's hardly a shoulder to walk on and no place to jump out of the way if a car gets to close....there's tall stone walls on both sides of the road. We passed the church called Domine Quo Vadis where St. Peter is said to have had a vision of Christ. There's also supposed to be a set of Jesus's footprints preserved in white marble in the church. We couldn't go in because Fred was wearing shorts and that's not allowed in churches in Italy.
We finally got to the catacombs of San Callisto and found they're closed from 12 to 2 so waited a half hour, felt great to sit down. Tour buses like to stop here and sure enough
they showed up about 1:50. Freddie bought our tickets and we stood in line while we were asked for a show of hands who needed the tour in which language...English, French, Dutch, German, Italian. Our English group went first...just giving the rest of the world another reason to hate us.
The catacombs have 5 underground levels with the second being the oldest...that's the one we got to see. No photos are allowed but it was very cool. 500,000 people buried here and 200,000 are babies...a high infant mortality rate. The rock is brown volcanic which impervious to water and the weather. Niches are cut into the walls to fit the size of the person being buried, so it was easy to see which ones were for adults or babies as they were laid down like they were sleeping. The tombs were originally sealed up after the person was buried, with their name, symbols, etc inscribed in the cement. You had to know who your relative was buried next or you'd never find them again, the catacombs are like a maze. All the bones have been removed on the second level, seems people on tours were stealing pieces of bones...idiots!
Martyrs and Popes had much larger tombs. There are also marble altars where Christian ceremonies are still performed today, by request only. The tomb of St. Cecilia is here but her fully preserved body was removed and is now in a church in Trastevere. In place of her body is a marble statue, showing her lying down, marks in her neck show she was beheaded.
We left the tomb, passed catacombs of San Sebastino, closed on Sundays. These tombs there were never lost or forgotten so are supposed to be in much better shape with preserved frescos. We continued our walk to the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, not much to see, and by now my butt was really dragging. As Craig, would say..."but you're in Rome" so yes I'm here in Rome dragging my sorry ass down the Appia Antica feeling really tired and crappy but it could be much worse. We finally arrived at a small intersection with a few cafes and a bus stop. We were told the 660 bus runs every 20 minutes and it soon showed up....YAY...we were dog tired. We got off at the Colli Albani metro stop and took it to Spagna.
Circus Maxentius
Similar to Circus Maximus and used for same purpose. Its along the Appian Way and is better preserved than Circus Maximus. Had dinner at a place called "Antica Enoteca" on Via della Croce. Freddie had lasagna, I had eggplant parmigiana and we finished with lemoncello...our first!
Walking slowly, oh so slowly, we made our way back to the metro and home. I crashed early, the cold I'd been fighting had won and I succumbed.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0426s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb