Roma Blog - Day 9 (12/31/2007): Happy New Year!

Our last full day in Rome was a great way to end a beautiful vacation. We started off with a walk around the Vatican wall to the Vatican Museum.








Along the way I spotted this car. Trust me, the one to the rear is very tiny. The other would likely fit into the trunk of my Pacifica!








We thought we were taking the shortcut and that we were getting there before the Museum opened. Well both were technically true, but we ended up waiting over 3 hours to get in anyway. The line was incredibly long. The wait was well worth it.

Here are my girls with a model of Michelangelo's Pieta.








This is a view of the dome from inside of the Museum as Donato Bramante intended it to be viewed.








This is one artist's depiction of the garden of eden:








Here is Raphael's famous Transfiguration:












And Carravaggio's Deposition from the Cross:












But this was my favorite exhibit:








Believe it or not, this is Michelangelo's favorite sculpture of an unfinished torso. He felt that it was his best depiction of man. Not surprisingly then, he used this sculpture as his model for the figure of the man as Adam in his Sistine Chapel ceiling depiction of The Creation of Man.








Here are some other exhibit pieces and some of the halls in this magnificent building:

From one Mummy . . . to another!

This is one of Raphael's most famous pieces depicting some of the greatest thinkers of all time including Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. (He even painted himself into this one!)

This is the exit hallway from the Museum, followed by the exit past the Swiss guards and back out onto the square in front of the Basilica.

We attended Mass at Santa Susanna, which is the home of the American Church in Rome. The Masses are in English (I preferred the Latin Mass at St. Peter's!).

From there we walked to find a place to eat and ended up passing right by the Bernini Bristol Hotel which is where my bride and I stayed on our honeymoon trip throughout the Spanish, French and Italian Rivieras that ended with four days in Rome.

Before finding a restaurant, we strolled by the Trevi Fountain one last time and it looked awesome that New Years Eve night!

We actually ended up eating at a restaurant's outside tables which turned out to be a lot of fun for our farewell meal! Thank God the Hard Rock Cafe was closed for a New Years Eve party as I didn't want to have a hamburger for my last meal in Rome as some others in my party (who will remain nameless) wanted to!

From there we headed back to our apartment to pack and then dashed out onto the rooftop solarium just as the clock struck midnight! You would not believe the amount of fireworks that were being set off all over the city. It was a great way to end an amazing trip. No doubt we created memories that will alst a lifetime for our family!

THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING US TO SHARE THIS BLOG WITH YOU! WE FELT LIKE WE HAD YOU ALONG WITH US.

GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU, AND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Roma Blog - Day 8 (12/30/2007): The Pope!

We went to Sunday Mass this morning at St. Peter's Basilica and it was in Latin. The celebration was absolutely beautiful! Immediately after that we went outside into the square with thousands of our closest friends to hear the Holy Father's Angelus. We got some great photos and videotape of the Pope as he appeared and addressed the crowd.




























"Habemus Papem!" "We have a Pope!" Once a new Pope is elected, he first appears to the crowd from this portico.












After grabbing some lunch we caught a taxi to the Quo Vadis? Chapel, located on the Via Appia, outside of Rome. The tradition is that this is the location where Jesus appeared to Peter as he was heading out of Rome. Peter asked our Lord, "Quo vadis?" ("Where are you going?"), and Jesus responded by indicating that He was heading back into Rome to be crucified again. It was then that Peter realized that he was wrong in leaving his people and thus he returned to Rome and was himself crucified, albeit upside down as he did not consider himself worthy of being treated like Christ.








From the Chapel we took a short walk to one of the catacombs.








This picture gives a good idea of how far out of the city we were.








Check out what we saw along the way!








No pictures were allowed in the catacombs, but we had an awesome guide who didn't hesitate to add in what almost amounted to a brief homily! We then headed over to our fourth and final Basilica, St. Paul Outside the Walls. St. Paul's tomb is visible through the grate embedded in the main altar.

Roma Blog - Day 7 (12/29/2007): A busy day!

Sorry for the delay in the blog, but we have been doing so much lately that it's a challenge to find time to fit this in too. We are enjoying doing it and are happy to see that so many of you are enjoying this blog!
Well, we headed back to the Colloseum and the Roman Forum early so that we were sure to get in this time.








Here's a view of the inside, but it's so immense that I couldn't capture the full view in one shot:








This one shows a reconstructed seating area to help you imagine what it must have looked like:








The family had a great time touring all around the inside of this historic building:








Victoria had a lot of fun clowning around!












We then went straight to the Roman Forum and did some more exploring (and Vicoria continued her photo shoot!):








This is where Julius Caesar's body was burned after he was killed:




















I was happy that we were next able to get into the Mamertine Prison as it was closed each time I tried on past trips. This was where SS. Peter & Paul were imprisoned, and the pillar to which they were chained is still there. We were able to up close and even touched it!












There is a small chapel upstairs and Victoria went up on her own to offer a prayer to Baby Jesus:












From the ancient ruins we went over to the nearby Church of San Peitro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains). The chains that bound him in the prisons in Jerusalem and then in Rome are there. When they were brought together in this Church, they miraculously linked together.




















This is Michelangelo's monument commissioned by Pope Julius II that contains his famous statue of Moses.
Our touring continue next at the awesome St. Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major). This statue of the Blessed Mother is atop the tall pillar in the piazza in front of the Church:












Now this is a baptistry!












The highlight is that directly below the altar in a small area (many of these Churches have these areas), there is an ornately decorated box that contains pieces of the Christ Child's manger!








We left St. Mary Major and went back to the Santa Scala which was open so that we could properly venerate the stairs that Jesus was forced to use to ascend to Pilate's place of judgment (that's Jonathan, Scott and I on the left side):








Finally, I saved this for last as a constant memory of the Christian influence on all of Rome. The Colloseum has been consecrated as a memorial to all of those who innocently lost their lives there: