Europe Trip: Day 26, June 15th

Once again I slept in a bit and didn't get up until 9:30am or so. Lubna was nice enough to have made some breakfast for me -- coffee, toast, a bit of fruit. We talked a bit, then I got ready, sent out a couple of e-mails, and planned for the day.

I was out the door at 12:30-1pm, planning to be at the Catacombs (San Callisto) by around 2pm when they opened. I ended up getting there more like 2:30pm and the guide took us down around 3pm. Also on the English tour were two guys from San Francisco, who may or may not have been a couple.

Sadly I have very few pictures for this whole day because pretty much everywhere I went they were quite adamant about 'No Cameras! No Pictures!'

The tour was very, very good with the guide being quite enthusiastic and having a bit of humor. There are at least 4 different levels, and we went around some passages on the first two or three levels. At the end we got to see two sarcophaguses with the remains of ancient Christians! The first was a woman, and you could still see much of the bones; the second was a boy who was wrapped in a shroud and you couldn't see any bones.

At the end of the tour the two people from San Francisco, Ricardo and Michael (not sure on the last name), said they were headed to another set of Catacombs called San Sebastian. I had thought it was closed on Monday, but they had a guide book and it was closed on Sunday not Monday. So I thought what the hell, why not?

We walked down the Via Appia Antica, where there was pretty much no sidewalk, for about 10 minutes until we reached San Sebastian. The guys were nice enough that they paid the 6 euros for my entry! So I only had to pay for the first one. This one the guide was quite monotone and boring, he had an accent from Germany or the Netherlands, I think. But there was an amazing cavern with Pagan mausoleums/crypts that had been converted into Christian ones that were very well preserved.

The second tour ended by walking straight into the church -- a special entrance directly from the Catacombs. In it there were the remains of Saint Sebastian, who had been a Roman soldier persecuted for his Christian beliefs. The other Roman soldiers had used him for archery practice. He was actually martyred twice, though, because when he was left for dead a woman nursed him back to health...only for him to once again pronounce his faith and this time be beheaded. Also the church had been built upon a place where supposedly St. Peter was fleeing from persecution, but ran into Jesus who was heading towards Rome. Jesus said to Peter 'Quo Vadis?' (Where are you going?)...anyway Peter is shamed or empowered to return to Rome, where he ends up being persecuted and dies -- the Catholics always have their happy endings.

We then took the bus back to Piazza San Giovanni and I made it to the church San Clemente barely in time to be allowed in (5:35pm, last entry was 5:40pm). Underneath the church are the remains of an old church and underneath that an old pagan temple of Mithros. Some old frescoes still remained in quite good condition. The place looked like a maximum security prison, though, because there were things that looked like motion detectors, areas chained off, glass doors, etc. More than just about any other place I had been to it seemed like they were trying to prevent any tampering with their excavation site. Still it was worth the trip and was quite interesting -- sadly, no cameras or pictures allowed in there either.

I walked back to San Giovanni and took the metro, then bus back to Torre Angela (neighborhood where I am staying). I decided to end it a bit earlier and catch up on these blog entries, starting with today's since it is fresh. Another 3 or so to go after this...

Francesca went out to eat with a friend, so Lubna said she would cook me something that she likes to make. Then maybe when Francesca gets back I will show them some more pictures and tell them about Idaho and the USA, if they want.