Friday at the catacombs!
Yesterday we headed of the city towards the catacombs. When we were half -way there, Justina and I discovered that we had forgotten our shawls, that we take around with us so that we can comply with the "no bare shoulders" dress code enforced in the churches! We knew there were at least 2 churches we wanted to see out by the catacombs, soooo, we parted ways with Chou, who went on out to them & made a mad dash back to our hostel.
Once finally back to the 'combs, we had a great time! We saw the Saint Sebastian ones first, which are the oldest that have been excavated so far, very cool! Then we went towards the St. Calisto catacombs, but because of our late start, we got there just at they closed for lunch. :( So, we walked down the hill, visited the Quo Vadis chapel (where Christ supposedly appeared to Peter and where he turned around to go back to Rome to be crucified). They didn't make us wear our shawls there, lol.
It was still a couple hours before the St Calisto opened, so we joined a bunch of other people and had a siesta in the shade. :) Then, at 2:30, we took the first tour down. I think I really liked these more, because there was more to see, meaning, the tour went further through the catacombs. But, hey, even though we saw aprox 400 meters, there are around 7 miles of EXCAVATED catacombs in Rome. (That doesn't count the ones they know about, but haven't excavated yet!
After we got back into town, we went to see the church that has the statue of Moses by Michelangelo. Wow, what an awesome sight! Talk about larger than life. I didn't realize that Moses was only the central figure to an even larger sculpture, which included figures of Rachel and Leah!
From there, we took the metro over to see the Spanish steps. They were neat, would have been prettier if there hadn't been so many people sitting on them, but, ok, I am still glad we went to see them. Plus, nearby, we found our favorite gelateri so far! We have been eating sooo much gelato, it is amazing! I mean, we have it AT LEAST twice a day. But, man! it tastes so yummy!!
For dinner, we tried out a little restaurant that Chou had recommended and, lo and behold! we found him there finishing up a glass of the house wine :-). So, he stayed to chat with us while we had our dinner. And he was right, it was delicious! I am so enjoying the ability to eat out inexpensively, which is not really possible in Switzerland. Afterwards, we parted ways for good, because he headed off to Florence this morning. I hope he has a great time, he was really nice and lots of fun to hang out with.
Then it was "home" to bed. Man, were we beat! More on today in the next blog!
Once finally back to the 'combs, we had a great time! We saw the Saint Sebastian ones first, which are the oldest that have been excavated so far, very cool! Then we went towards the St. Calisto catacombs, but because of our late start, we got there just at they closed for lunch. :( So, we walked down the hill, visited the Quo Vadis chapel (where Christ supposedly appeared to Peter and where he turned around to go back to Rome to be crucified). They didn't make us wear our shawls there, lol.
It was still a couple hours before the St Calisto opened, so we joined a bunch of other people and had a siesta in the shade. :) Then, at 2:30, we took the first tour down. I think I really liked these more, because there was more to see, meaning, the tour went further through the catacombs. But, hey, even though we saw aprox 400 meters, there are around 7 miles of EXCAVATED catacombs in Rome. (That doesn't count the ones they know about, but haven't excavated yet!
After we got back into town, we went to see the church that has the statue of Moses by Michelangelo. Wow, what an awesome sight! Talk about larger than life. I didn't realize that Moses was only the central figure to an even larger sculpture, which included figures of Rachel and Leah!
From there, we took the metro over to see the Spanish steps. They were neat, would have been prettier if there hadn't been so many people sitting on them, but, ok, I am still glad we went to see them. Plus, nearby, we found our favorite gelateri so far! We have been eating sooo much gelato, it is amazing! I mean, we have it AT LEAST twice a day. But, man! it tastes so yummy!!
For dinner, we tried out a little restaurant that Chou had recommended and, lo and behold! we found him there finishing up a glass of the house wine :-). So, he stayed to chat with us while we had our dinner. And he was right, it was delicious! I am so enjoying the ability to eat out inexpensively, which is not really possible in Switzerland. Afterwards, we parted ways for good, because he headed off to Florence this morning. I hope he has a great time, he was really nice and lots of fun to hang out with.
Then it was "home" to bed. Man, were we beat! More on today in the next blog!