Roma Blog - Day 3 (12/25/2007) Christmas Day in Rome!

Christmas afternoon in Rome, but Santa Claus still found Victoria! (Yes, it does say AFTERNOON. Hey, give us a break! Midnight Mass didn't end until 2:00 am and by the time we got back to our apartment and wound down a bit, it was very late.)

After opening presents, we got ready and headed out to catch a few sights on Christmas Day. Here's the set of steps that we have to negotiate going from and to

the Residence Vatican Suites where we are staying.

Check out some of the great pictures we were able to get as we began our walk:

Those of you who have been to Rome know that by just wondering around the city and popping into the countless beautiful Churches you come across, you stumble upon some of the best "finds" of your trip. That happened to us twice this evening. The first time was when we happened upon relics of St. Padre Pio and the beautiful depiction of Padre Pio and Jesus carrying the cross together seen below:

The next time was when we stumbled upon these three Caravaggio originals! My brother Deacon Candidates will recognize the middle painting from Father Lane course. It was one of his powerpoint slides, "The Inspiration of St. Matthew!" The first is "The Calling of St. Matthew" by Jesus to follow Him, and the final is "The Death of St. Matthew" with the angel comforting him. These were truly amazing to see firsthand!

Here's the family out enjoying our walk that evening, and Victoria's working hard on one of her Christmas presents! This was taken as we began to stroll through the most upscale part of Rome as the following pictures will show.

These last two are from my favorite coffee shop, Antico Caffe Greco! It's at the base of the famous Spanish Steps which was our next stop.

Little Victoria made it all of the way up and down the approx. 174 steps! Here she is on the way down.




Here's a good shot of the boys before we headed to the biggest McDonald's in the world. It has a salad bar, waterfall, and beer on tap! But the food is the same (unfortunately!)









This is just before Scott ended up in handcuffs by the Polizia. Hopefully they'll release him before we have to leave for home (just kidding of course!)







And if you would have told me that there was a chance that Jonathan and Scott would be ice skating in Rome I would have thought you were nuts! Needless to say, they were just a bit better than their Italian counterparts! We could tell that the spectators were really enjoying watching them!









We ended a great day on a blessed note. Baby Jesus had been placed in the presipio in the square of St. Peter's Basilica!