Throughout our time here in Rome, we have tried to see as many of churches we can and we have visited quite a few. However ever since I bought the Rome pilgrimage book and also started a "must see before leaving" list, we have realized how many more churches we want to see. So Giorgio and I, sometime along with George, Mercedes or Judy, started to visit these churches and other "must see" sights a little before Thanksgiving. One of the things we will miss most about Rome are it's churches!
A church we walk by all the time is San Carlos e Catinari. Finally I walked by one day when they were open so I visited. I really like this church because it has many devotions here to members of the Holy Family.
I have visited Il Gesu many times but this time I went with the pilgrimage book. It was great knowing more about what I was seeing. This is one of my favorite churches in Rome due to the stunning paintings and frescoes in the it.
"Circumcision"
The Trinity over St. Ignatius's chapel
What a holy boy!
Believe it or not but a few days ago was the first time we went to the Trevi fountain on this trip. Little George LOVED the fountain. He enjoyed it more than any playground or park we have been to. I helped him throw a coin into the fountain so he is coming back!
George, Giorgio and I came back to the Trevi the day before Thanksgiving and I was able to take video of Giorgio's excitement.
Mercedes, Judy, Giorgio and I spent a day visiting churches near the Esquiline hill. We first went to San Pietro in Vincoli. This is actually Cardinal Wuerl's titular church.
Michelangelo's Moses
The chains that held St. Peter in a prison in Jerusalem and chains that held him in Rome's Mamertine prison, that miraculously joined together.
Then we visited San Prassede. This church is near Santa Maria Maggiore. The church houses the relics of 2,300 Christian martyrs from the persecution of Nero, including St. Praxedes and Pudenziana, who sheltered Chrisians during the persecution and were ultimately killed themselves.
Part of the column that Christ was tied to when scourged.
After lunch, the four of us visited Santa Maria Maggiore. Little George and I had been here before for mass but we had not really had the chance to explore the church as much as desired. Something I found out while here was that Bernini is buried here. His tomb is to the right side of the altar and there is only a small inscription on the step marking his burial spot.
Relic of Christ's manger.
This icon was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on the wooden table used by the Holy Family in Nazareth.
St. Matthew remains are under the altar.
Judy, Mercedes, Giorgio and I then headed up to Piazza della Republica and visited Santi Maria degli Angeli, the last church visited that day. The church is built using part of the Baths of Diocletian.
A brass line in the floor that when the rays of the sun come in through a small opening in the wall marks noon. This line was how Romans regulated their clocks until 1846.
The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Giorgio and I walked towards the Lateran to meet George after his drawing class. On our way there, we visited Santi Quattro Coronati. On our way out of the church, an Italian man stopped us and told me how beautiful little George's eyes were and that with those "clear" eyes he was being introduced to true beauty so early in life. What he said is so true and it will be interesting to see if and what kind of impact Giorgio's time in Rome has on him.
Giorgio and I ended up meeting George in the Lateran baptistry, which was built at the time of Constantine. All around the baptistry are frescoes telling about the life of Constantine that I found particularly striking.
After meeting up with Dad, we all went to lunch and then headed towards home stopping at quite a few churches on the way. The first we visited was Santo Stefano Rotando, which is one of Rome's earliest churches.
The church is circular and around the sides are incredibly gruesome frescoes of Jesuits being martyred.
We visited Santi Giovanni e Paolo, a church built where the brothers Sts. John and Paul were martyred in their home and then buried. They were officers of the Emperor Julian who refused to deny the Christian faith. The interior is stunning. My photos do not do it justice because the dimming light.
Next we visited San Gregorio Magno, which is the church from where St. Augustine of Canterbury was sent to convert England to Christianity. This is one of George's favorite churches. The architecture is amazing! The church is also right next to the Missionaries of Charity house.
The last church we visited that day was San Giorgio in Velabro. I had been wanting to visit this church with George and Giorgio since we arrived in Rome because the relics of St. George are here. This also used to be John Henry Newman's titular church.
George and little George with St. George. May they both be saints one day.
We are here for three more weeks so our time to enjoy these gems of Rome is running out! We are going to try to make the most we can with our time!
On Thanksgiving morning, George, Giorgio and I took a train down to Sorrento (south of Naples) for our holiday. When we arrived we saw the town all bedecked in Christmas decorations!
The town is normally filled with tourists, however since tourist season is over, most of the people in the town were the locals and there were only a few of us tourists. It was a nice change of pace for us to come to a small town away from the crowds that we are used to in Roma.
The town is filled with wood inlay, ceramic, limoncello and pastry shops. Thank goodness for us quite a few of the stores were closed due to tourist season being over. If they had been open it would have much harder for us not to buy anything! The wood inlay work they do here is gorgeous and the limoncello and pastries are delicious (yes, we caved and tried some!).
This was a courtyard next to one of the churches in the town.
We found a small park along the waterfront overlooking the Bay of Naples. Giorgio had a ball here running up and down the sidewalk and looking out over the water. He gets so excited about water and there was no exception here. He knelt down, getting as close to the railing as he could, pointed and kept on saying "wow" at the water!
Mt. Vesuvius
Just outside the old part of town there is a lemon and orange grove that we went to. They let you walk around and then in the middle of it they have a tasting area where they let you taste the liquors they produce. Mmmm! They make not only limoncello but liquors with oranges, fennel and one with lemons and cream. They inspired George to try to make his own versions of these liquors!
In the evening, we went to a restaurant that was recommended to us by our hotel as serving very authentic family style Italian food. Boy was it good! If we could not be at home with our families eating turkey, stuffing and pie then this was the next best thing. We had an appetizer sampler and some of the appetizers reminded us a little of Thanksgiving food. We had this brocoli and cheese dish (a little like brocoli and cheese casserole), a pumpkin roll, and an eggplant rolled up with cheese and tomato sauce (a little like my dad's eggplant parmesan.) Little George stuffed his face, as is appropriate for Thanksgiving, and in particular loved the fried baby calamari!
On Friday, we hopped on a bus going up the Amalfi coast and stopped in the town of Positano. The bus ride was an adventure to be sure. The bus driver, in classic Italian style, speed the whole way even around the many hairpin turn going up and down the mountain side. Little George apparently inherited my motion sickness and ended up getting sick all over me on the ride to Positano. After we got off the bus and walked around a little, he was talking and squealing in delight over the water.
Positano is a gorgeous village! Not many people were visiting while we were there (again because tourist season is over) which was great! We had the beach almost to ourselves, I was not tempted to go shopping and we just got to enjoy the town as it is without the many distractions crowds can bring!
We walked from the top of the town, where the bus dropped us off, to the waterfront. Every where you looked was a stunning view.
The beach was gorgeous! Only a few other people where there, the weather was perfect, and we had the most incredible view!
We stuck our feet in the Mediterranean! Giorgio was very insistent about getting in the water. The water was a little cold so we quickly got out!
However Georgie still had fun on the beach. He was fascinated by all of the pebbles and particularly enjoyed hitting them together and throwing them!
George's favorite part of the day= getting a hug from his little Georgie! Someone is a daddy's boy! Giorgio loved every moment with George. After not having Dad around as much as he would like, little George wanted Dad most of the time!
We slowly walked back up to the top of the town to get on the bus back to Sorrento. Luckily little George feel asleep in the baby carrier before getting on the bus so he did not get sick again!
On Saturday, we explored Sorrento a little more. We picked up some fruit for little George to snack on throughout the day and noticed the lemons at the fruit stand. Yes these huge things are lemons! They are what Sorrento is famous for!
After lunch, we took a train to Pompeii. George had been before and remembered quite a bit from his classes, so he was a wonderful tour guide. It is amazing how much of these homes, shops, streets and the art work in them are preserved.
It was an interesting task trying to figure out how to best traverse the streets of Pompeii with a stroller.
Cookies were the key to keeping Georgie happy while George and I looked around.
Little George began enjoying the visit about haft way through our tour. He was particularly interested in the fawn at the House of the Fawn. We had to hold him back because he wanted to touch quite a few things including the fawn!
In one of the baths
Stray dogs are everywhere even in ruins. I think this was little George's favorite site.
On Sunday, after mass at Sorrento's cathedral and one last meal of Neapolitan pizza (we ate lots of pizza while here), we headed back to Roma. It was wonderful to get away to a small town for a few days for Thanksgiving and be together just the three of us!
