Now that George's project is finished and his classes are done we are visiting and revisiting lots of Rome's sights. Last Monday, we visited churches around the Forum area, went into the Colosseum and went on a merry-go-round in Piazza Navona!
We visited Santa Maria in Aracoeli,
Where St. Helen, Constantine's mother, is buried and where legend says Augustus' Ara Coeli is. Emperor Augustus heard a prophesy at the Temple of Juno Moneta that states "This is the altar of the first born of God". So he built an altar on this site referred to as the Ara Coeli, "altar of heaven".
Santo Bambino, a statue of baby Jesus that is carved out of olive wood from the Garden of Gethsemene.
Santi Cosma e Damiano,
and San Francesco Romana.
The church was built on the spot where Simon Magnus (Acts 8:9-24 and from the apocryphal Acts of Peter), in an attempt to show off his magical powers, flew into the air, but because of the prayers of Sts. Peter and Paul, crashed to the earth leaving the above imprint in the floor.
This confession was designed by Bernin. Little George loved walking up and down these stairs. I do not know how many time he went up and down them while Dad took tons of photos of the church.
While little George napped and Dad sat outside the Colosseum (he had already visited the Colosseum a few times before), I went into the Colosseum. It was awesome walking around, listening to my free Rick Steves audio guide tell stories of the Colosseum and to be in such a historical place.
From the Pantheon, we walked towards Piazza Navona in order to walk around the Christmas market and go on the merry-go-round! Little George loved it at first but about haft way through the ride he started to get a little distressed.
On Friday, we went all over the city seeing many more sites than we had originally planned. We began at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, went up the Sancta Scala and visited the Lateran for the last time this trip.
Santa Croce houses many relics of the Passion: 3 parts of the Cross, a portion of the title from the cross, the Apostle Thomas' finger, two thorns from the crown of thorns, and a nail.
This is the Chapel os St. Helen, which was built on soil that St. Helen brought back with her from Calvary.
Showing Giorgio the presepe at the Lateran
Then we walked over to Santa Maria Maggiore to visit the relics of Christ's manger during Advent and to visit Bernini's tomb.
On the way to Maria Maggiore, we stopped in a small church and it ended up having the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
George at Bernini's tombstone
We stopped at our favorite gelato/ cannoli shop on our way to visit Sant'Agata dei Goti and then headed up to Bernini's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale.
We had a wait a few minutes in front of Sant'Andrea al Quirinal for the church to open,.
Giorgio liked this presepe I think because it was at the perfect level!
After swinging by the Trevi Fountain one last time, George got it into his head that we should experience Rome at night by walking up Via del Corso at night and walk up to Piazza del Popolo.
Looking towards the Spanish Steps
Piazza del Popolo
We finished the night off by having dinner at a Fr. DeRosa recommended restaurant near Sant Apostoli. They had the most amazing antipasta buffet there!
We ended up walking almost 6 miles in one day!
With all of that walking we did on Friday, we decided to have a lazy day on Saturday!
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