Roma Blog - Day 4 (12/26/2007) Some speed bumps!

Usually on a trip like this there are some times that just don't work out as planned. Today was that day. We originally planned to take a taxi to the Colloseum, but due to a light rain and having the stroller with us for Victoria, we thought it would be less hassle to walk over instead. Boy were we wrong! We had what we thought were two choices in roads and of course picked the wrong one. We ended up recreating the Bataan Death March! As a result we ended up not getting to the Colloseum and Forum Romano before they closed so we'll have to go back there another day. My camera battery died too and the spare was at the apartment so we only got a few photos on my camera before we had to resort to photos on the Treo phones that Jonathan & I have with us. Here they are:










The photos above were all taken mid-way through our "journey " to the Colloseum area.

This next one is of Circus Maximus, one of the areas where the chariot races were held, and the one that follows is the Forum Romano from afar (closed at that time!).

And here is the famous (infamous) Colloseum:









Although none of the pictures came out, we did make it to the Church of St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr today on his feast day! This was a big goal of mine today, and the Church turned out to be unique. All of the frescoes depicted the various dreadful and horrendous ways in which the early martyrs we killed. There was also an area set off by a wrought iron railing to depict was a typical stoning pit must have looked like.

We next trudged over to San Giovanni in Laterno and were able to get inside before it closed. As Bishop of Rome, this is the Holy Father's Cathedral. The interior is extraordinary, but unfortunately we couldn't capture in on photos.










The two silver statues of St. Peter and St. Paul in the baldacchino contain pieces of their heads.

From there we got to the Santa Scala (Holy Stairs) literally 3 minutes after it formally closed. We were able to get inside to take a few photos of the stairs and the nearby statuary, but we did not have the opportunity to ascend the stairs in prayer on our knees as I did the last time I was in Rome. I am hoping that we have a chance to get back to do so before we leave, but there is so much to stuff in to the remaining days. Emperor Constantine's mother, St. Helen, had these stairs brought to Rome from Jerusalem. They were the stairs that Jesus was forced to ascend to Pontius Pilate's palace before He was condemned to death.





















We headed back over to Piazza Navona to give Victoria a chance to ride the carousel as she was sleeping in her stroller when we were there the first night. She had a blast as she always does!

So as you can see, although we hit some major speed bumps today, the day still ended with smiles as it always does in Rome!