Our last day in Rome was Sunday, so of course we started out by finding a church. There are both Anglican and Episcopal churches in Rome, but neither was conveniently located for us. We were, fortunately, only a few minutes’ walk from St. Patrick’s, the Roman Catholic outpost for Americans in Rome. St. Patrick’s was, for many years, led by an Irish order and catered to the Irish expats. A few years ago the Irish clergy were called back to Ireland, and an American parish, which had been sharing a building with an Italian parish, moved into St. Patrick’s. They are working to restore the beautiful, old building. We didn’t take pictures, but there is a very nice mosaic of St. Patrick above the altar. The feel was very American. The service music was all by Marty Haugen, and the hymns included “Be not Afraid”. We could have been in any Roman Catholic parish at home. Not as cozy as an Anglican service, but still a pretty good second choice. No, we are not about to “swim the TIber”. We will always be Anglicans!
After church, we began our busy day of sightseeing. It was complicated by another marathon! The Rome Marathon was taking place, and it was affecting both public transportation and even pedestrian access to some main streets. The Colosseum metro station was closed, and taxis were pretty much unavailable since road access was so unpredictable. Oy! The concierge at our hotel recommended that we walk to the Colosseum. It was a long walk, but we really wanted to be sure the kids saw it. How could we take our two young ancient history lovers to Rome and skip the Colosseum or the Roman Forum? No way! So we walked. And this what we saw.
Kloee may be reflecting on some of the things that happened here. She looks sad.
We had lunch, and proceeded to the Roman Forum, just across the street from the Colosseum. This turns out to have been really fun. We had learned about the Julius Caesar and his assassination by the Roman Senate because he had become too popular and thus too powerful. The girls were looking forward to seeing the place where that brutal event took place. The is a lot more to see in the Roman forum that just that place, and we spent a lot of time there.
The girls gathered flowers to place at the site of Julius Caesar’s cremation. Lots of people still do this to honor the great Roman emperor and military leader. As you can see, they were very pleased with their offering.
There are many temples along the main street of Ancient Rome. This is the Temple of Vesta. Here was kept the sacred flame, which must never be allowed to go out. The flame was maintained by the Vestals, a group of from two to six women who served thirty-year terms. These girls began their service around the age of six, and while serving did not marry, They had an important job, because Vesta was the goddess of the hearth, and if the flame went out every hearth in Rome would suffer greatly. The Vestals were major celebrities in Rome, and they had a lot more power than women usually had in the Roman Empire.
Ancient monuments have at least two uses, we found out. One: you can learn your history in a very hands-on way that you will probably never forget and Two: you can sometimes climb all over them!
Nobody asked us to leave or to kindly refrain from engaging so closely with the valuable ancient ruins, so we think it was OK to enjoy them from very close up.
It had been a wonderful, educational and tiring day. We had a long walk home. On the way we accidentally discovered the Trevi Fountain! One more little treat from Rome.
Blessings,
Linda
These pictures bring back so many memories from my trip to Rome on an art tour when I was 16 years old. I remember these places, including the Trevi Fountain, and I remember how HOT it was in Rome! Hot, noisy, and DIRTY! I would wash my clothes out in the bathtub every night and the water would turn dark gray with the dirt. But what a magnificent city!
A perfect description: hot, noisy, dirty, magnificent! Mostly, I try to remember the magnificent part.