Day 3 in the Eternal City of Rome

Today (April 3) was Sunday and there aren't a lot of tours offered which was okay with me because I just wanted to do my own thing for at least one day in Rome. As I began my morning walk over towards St. Peter's, I noticed a lot of people walking with me. Hmmmm. Well, the Pope was making another appearance and people were anxious to get there early. While I was waiting in line just to get through security so I could cross the square (instead of taking extra steps to go around!) a really nice Italian women gave me two extra tickets to get into the area reserved for ticket holders to watch and listen to the Pope! Too bad I had other things I wanted to do. The feeling on the square was positive energy and joy. They love their Pope! I love that kind of passion.

I walked to the Ottaviano Metro Station and took the metro to the San Giovanni stop. My goal this morning: Church of San Giovanni of Laterano and the Holy Steps - Scala Santa. It was nice to be a little ways out of the city. It was more quiet. One of my Catholic piano students shared with me that this church was actually more of the "seat of the Catholic religion" than St. Peter's.

San Giovanni of Laterano, built by Constantine the Great, in the 4th century.

All of the above pictures were taken and I hadn't even walked into the church yet!

The Holy Door

Got there just in time for mass! A mass in Italian. It was interesting to me that they continue
to let tourists come in and take pictures during mass. That seems unusual to me.

All 12 apostles were represented by these very large statues. I couldn't get to all of them because why?
They were holding mass! Duh!

Part of the ceiling

Matthew, the apostle

It is said that the bones of the heads of Peter and Paul are in here. But how can that
be if Peter is buried under the altar at St. Peter's? Maybe I misunderstood the video.

I kind of can't get over the baroque-ness of these organs and pipes.

The floors are beautiful patterns - the whole floor!

Scala Santa - Holy Stairs
These stairs are said to be the stairs the Jesus walked up when he was taken to Pontius Pilate where the decision
was made to crucify Christ.

Pontius Pilate and Jesus

If you want to go up the stairs you must do so on your knees. If you even begin to
stand up, the priest on duty will say out loud "on your knees." It's a very spiritual experience that many
people travel far to see and do.

Before leaving the area I decided to walk around a little bit. It's really beautiful in this part of Rome, away from the chaos. I wish I would have had time to rent a bike and ride the ancient Appian Way to see the miraculous engineering of the ancient aquaduct. Next time. These two pictures are old city walls. There was a lot of warring going on in Italy before it was unified.

I found this obelisk behind the church. I am intrigued by the Latin on the base,
and . . . 

. . . the Egyptian hieroglyphics up the pillar. 

After the church visit I hopped back on the metro and headed to the Victor Emmanuel Monument that I didn't really get to see the day before. I got off at the Vittoria Emmanuel metro stop only to discover that I still had quite a long walk ahead. I have learned that one cannot make the assumption that just because the metro stop and the attraction have the same name means you come up out of the metro tunnel and boom! there it is. Nope. The Vittoria Emmanuel metro stop was for the V.E. piazza / park. Oh well, my walk down one of Rome's seven hills dropped me by some interesting street musicians and artists.

This man was playing some very beautiful classical music.

And these guys wanted me to pay them money because I took their picture.

I finally arrived at my destination - the Victor Emmanuel II Monument. It's white and huge and very symbolic to the Italian people as it is a tribute to the first king of a unified Italy. I've learned on this trip about all the squabbling and wars between cities, i.e., Rome & Florence, Pisa and Lucca, and just about every other city. It was a great feat to get everyone on the same page and being nice to each other to form a unified Italy.

You cannot sit on the steps or take a suitcase or stroller up the steps.

Tomb of the Unknown Italian Soldier

Some of the statuary all around and on top of the monument.

But the best part of all was the view from the top of the monument. No, I take that back. The best part was that there was an elevator to take you to the top!!









Then there is the occasional, kind of weird things one sees, like a nesting seagull on the
top of the monument. And a statue that just cracks you up

"Hey, where are my clothes? Is anybody looking? I think I'll slip on down to this bathtub and try to
figure out how I got here."


This is Trajan's Column, built in the first century for the Roman emperor Trajan. It is right across the street from the Victor Emmanuel Monument and next to a whole lot of ancient Roman ruins.

I can't tell you how many times I have been trying to make this blog posting work and it keeps doing absolutely the weirdest things, like doubling up on pictures, putting pictures in the totally wrong order, and then dropping have the post. SOOOOO, I'm going to do this as part one of  Day 3 in Rome and try to finish up in a new post. Geez!