Day 3: Rome

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After mapping the places of our interest for the day with the metro and bus systems of Rome, we chose to buy a daily pass (4 euro each) to cover a wider area of Rome.  There are only two metro lines: Red and Blue lines; they cover all the points of interest in Rome.  For those who are interested in visiting Catacombs and Vatican city on the same day, my recommendation is to take Red line to Vatican city and then take Bus# 81 from the bus station in Vatican city to San Giovanni and change to Bus# 218 to Catacombs or vice-versa.  In spite of meticulous planning, due to the long queue in St. Peter Basilica and the opening hours of Catacomb, we forgo Catacomb, something I have to come back for in the future.....

On the way to Santa Maria della Concezione around 8:30am, we stumbled onto the world largest ancient Roman Bath, located across the famous Republica..   Time constraint.  We stopped only for pictures.   What I saw in Santa Maria Della Concezione is something I may never forget.  "In the crypt under the main Capuchin church, the bones of some 4,000 dead Capuchin monks are arranged in odd decorative designs around the shriveled and decayed skeletons of their kinsmen, a macabre reminder of the impermanence of earthly life. Signs declare WHAT YOU ARE, WE ONCE WERE.  WHAT WE ARE, YOU SOMEDAY WILL BE."  Perhaps, I am indeed very peculiar; looking back on my 11-day trip, this particular visit touched my soul the most.  Anything that can remind me of my fleeting life always humbles and reaffirms me to live my life to its fullest and to keep the number of regrets in life to its minimal.  When it is time to die, all that I do is to die with no such questions as "what if or what might have been". 

From there we took Red line to Vatican City.  Having been in Rome for just one day, I have learned a new insight.  When in doubt, we just followed the direction of the crowd.  Sure enough, it led us to St. Peter Basilica.  I anticipated myself to be overwhelmed, but I didn't, even when we were in the middle of the vast St. Peter's square.  People were everywhere.  It took me a good five minutes before I could pinpoint where the end of the long waiting queue was.  "Probably it will take at least a good 1 1/2 hours before we can get into the Basilica", i told my niece.  Having taken the heat with no shade into consideration, we decided to come back later the day.  We took the Red line to San Giovanni in Laterano. It is the biggest cathedral of Rome instead of St. Peter Basilica, since it is in Vatican city, technically not a part of Rome. Bear in mind that the ticket purchased for vatican museum can be used for the entrance to this church.  

A brief visit at San Giovanni, we went to St. Clemente- a 12th-century church built on top of a 4th-century church, which in turn was built over a 2nd-century pagan temple to the god Mithras.  This is the hardest church to find and also the most disappointing archeological site we have visited.  The historical fact of this church is indeed very appealing, but I was rather disappointed with what I saw.  For others, this may be an extraordinary archeological site; but personally, the dim lighting and the lack of signposts for the unearthed treasures has reduced my ability to enjoy its richness.   Walking down 2 to 3 levels down to the unearthed site uncontrollably created some sense of mystery to the past.  It was already 2:30pm after we visited St. Clemente.  No much time left, we decided to forgo Catacombs and moved on to Patheon, Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, and St. Peter Basilica.  At the bus stop, we found a very polite Roman lady to assist us.  We tagged along with her to Patheon.  She works for an international firm that requires traveling.  She had been to Chicago a couple times, and therefore we exchanged email addresses.  Who knows, I may see here in Chicago or there in Rome again.  :-)

Patheon - one of Rome's most impressive and best-preserved ancient monuments. A must see.  The hight of the dome is equal to the diameter of the circular interior.  The oculus, or opening in the dome, is meant to symbolize the all-seeing eye of heaven.  In practice, it illuminates the building and lightens the heavy stone ceiling.  It was so packed that one can hardly enjoy what is presented before one's eyes.  I walked away from this wonderful monument with only one question: why is it free admission while others, with only piles of ruins to see, charge so much? 

Campo de Fiori - filled with artists' work and restaurants.

Piazza Navona - same as Campo de Fiori.

From Piazza Novana, we took bus #81 to Vatican city.  We both grinned when we saw the line at St. Peter Basilica was gone.  We walked right into it..  But it was still quite crowded inside the cathedral.  People have tendency to linger for hours.  Michelangelo's Pieta is placed on the right after the main entrance.  People were packed in front of it.  We squeezed in and after a snapshot of it, we squeezed out.  From a distance, I literally stood in awe of his work.  Mary's gentle and yet restraining deep sorrow eyes looked down on the gruesome death of her son as his dead body was lying helplessly on her arms.  No thread of anger in her expression but a total surrender to God's will.  What exactly went thru Michelangelo's mind as he sculptured this?  Only a deep emotional man  can skillfully sculpture such a marvelous work.  The height of the ceiling, the number of the sculptures, including one for each pope since when I don't know, the altar, the dome, which was built by Michelangelo, and the occasional wonderful  singing  voices from the mass indeed tranquilize one's soul.  I felt very safe inside here.  Though I am not a catholic, I don't mind sitting in the pew to enjoy those angelic singing voices.  We joined the 5pm mass.  *chuckle* I nearly fell into sleep. 

We lingered a while at the vastness of St. Peter's Square.  At the same time our eyes glanced through all the surrounding buildings for a post office.  A stamp collector myself, It was one of my goals to get some Vatican's stamp.  We didn't really find it in spite of the direction we got from the patrol police.  Walked away disappointedly.

Took the same bus back to Piazza Novana.  We tried to visit the Jewish Ghetto in Rome and also tried to have my niece enjoy her first Jewish kosher meal.  But we could not find a Jewish restaurant in the area we felt comfortable to stroll.  Some areas looked quite rough with vandalism appears everywhere.  In the midst of our search, we accidentally  stumbled upon a ruin site where it has now become a cat heaven/park.  All the cats are vaccinated, sterilized, and tested before they are placed there and they live on the charity of people.  I find this concept rather innovative.  The cats we saw are pretty FAT. 

We then stopped by the Termini Station for our train ticket to Florence the next day and had our dinner at a lousy restuarant that imposed 30% cover charge to be sitting at their table.  The food was worse than my own cooking.

Two Asian females walked into the ground floor of our hostel where I was surfing on the Internet...  Hearing their English accents and not so fluent English, I can tell they must be from Hong Kong, China, or Taiwan.  I forgot who initiated a conversation.  Anyhow, my niece and I ended up going to a restaurant with them since they had not had their dinner yet.  Helen and Eileen were their names.  Helen is from HK while Eileen is from German and speaks fluent German.   The waiters, by any standards, were not professional at all.  One of the waiters kept touching my niece's shoulder each time he stopped by and kept saying, " You are so pretty, and I love you."  The compliment was okay, but the touching part was redundant and impolite..  Having exchanged our contact information with Helen and Eileen, we called it a day.