Rome - day 2 - part 1

Monday 8/4/08
On our second day in Rome we took advantage of our hotel's free breakfast. Our room was actually in another building a couple of blocks from the Flann O'Bryan Pub, so we had to take a little trek to get there. Since it is an actual restaurant and there were quite a few average Joe's there having their morning espressos, or whatever those Italian coffee drinkers drink, we had a pass that allowed us to get a typical European hotel breakfast for free. For a couple of Euros more we could upgrade to a little more exciting breakfast, but we decided to stick with the free stuff.

Our first objective of the day was to go to San Pietro in Vincoli (or St. Peter in Chains). We had to walk up through the tunnel above to get there. It was first built between 432 and 440 but underwent a number of restorations and rebuildings.

San Pietro in Vincoli is best known for Michelangelo's statue of Moses on the tomb of Pope Julius II. Moses has horns. It's in the Bible.

This is the sexy Pope Julius II, lounging after death.

In a reliquary underneath the main alter in the basilica are the chains that bound St. Peter.

Supposedly, when the chains that bound St. Peter in Jerusalem were brought together with those that bound him in Rome they fused together. It was a Christmas miracle.

On our walk from San Pietro in Vincoli to the bus stop we happened to see some minor bits of historical architecture. One of them is seen above.

Here's the other. Looks like a mess to me.

The Colosseum and the Forum will have to wait until another trip. I still have only seen both from the outside. Sarah said we'll go to the Colosseum later. We were actually going to walk through the Forum at one point, but we were walking against the flow of traffic and arrived at the exit. We got some great views of it the next day.

Our bus (and about 700 others) have a centrally located stop next to the Monument of Vittorio Emmanuel II. So we got a closer view of it (and its construction) than we had the day before. We got on the number 44 bus to Trestevere on the southwest side of town and on the other side of the Tiber. There were a couple of churches that Sarah wanted to see over there, but unfortunately on of them was closed. They were up on top of a hill, and we got great views of the city.

We did get to see the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trestevere. It is one of the oldest churches in Rome, having been built in the 340s. It may have been the first church in Rome in which mass was openly celebrated. There was actually a Christian house church that was built on the site in about 220.

These mosaics are from the 13th century.

We walked a long way from Trestevere to the area just north of St. Peter's and Castel Sant'Angelo to meet up with the Wolaver clan (Sarah's aunt Sue, uncle Steve, and cousin Lindy) and others from the cruise they just left in Greece. Above you can see round Castel Sant'Angelo by the beautiful Tiber River. The castle was used as a refuge for the popes, notably in 1527 when Emperor Charles V sacked Rome. It was originally a mausoleum commissioned by Hadrian.

This was as close as we got to St. Peter's on this trip.

This court building was right next to the Castel Sant'Angelo and just south of the Wolaver's hotel. Sarah's uncle (the judge) was very interested in learning more about the Italian legal system but was not allowed in. Apparantly he didn't look like a judge in his shorts.