Rome: Days 3 and 4

Day 3 in Rome (Saturday) started with another tour with Ciarla, this time to the Colosseum and the old Roman Forum.

After the Vatican, we tried to visit the Pantheon about 5:30 but it was closed to visitors because there was going to be a mass at 6pm. We resolved to see it in the morning. Ana found out that there was going to be a mass at 10:30, so we would need to be early to be able to get in. Walking back to the apartment, Jim asked if anyone was going to attend mass. I replied that we were going to attend "the ante-mass" and then had to explain that it was "ante" with an "e" and not an "i".

For dinner on Saturday, we had arranged with the apartment agents (Allesandro and Emanuele) for them to prepare a meal for us that we would eat on the apartment's terrace, which had this view of nearby churches:

They provided a pasta course, a veal dish with a side, and a dessert. Some of the group watched them prepare in the apartment kitchen. 

Day 4 in Rome (Sunday) started with a short walk to the Pantheon. Built in Roman times as a temple for their gods, it was later converted to a Christian church. For more than a millennium it had the largest dome in the world.

 

Nearby the Pantheon is Piazza Navona, where Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers sculpture stands.

For lunch, Jim, Barbara, Ana and I went to a pizzeria very close to the apartment. It was recommended by the notebook in our apartment and often had very long lines to get in. Our experience of poor, rude service and so-so food left us wondering why.

In the afternoon we took a bus and the subway to a park where we would start a bike tour of part of the Appian Way. Our first stop on the tour was the Catacombs of Callixtus (no indoor photos permitted). It once contained the tombs of several popes and martyrs from the 2nd to 4th centuries. Catacombs were a solution for burying dead in a cost-effective way. Tombs lined underground passages. When there was no more room for more, they would dig the passageway deeper and hollow out more tombs on the newly exposed walls at the bottom.

The catacomb complex has about 20km of such passages. 

We then continued our bike ride. In one spot we saw evidence of the wear of chariot wheels on the rocks of the road.

We also stopped at several tombs dating from Ancient Rome.

Near the end of the bike ride, we saw several of the aqueducts that Rome is famous for.

For dinner we went to Il Fico, very close to our apartment. We had been for dinner on Friday evening and really enjoyed it. The Sunday experience was just as good. We can heartily recommend the place.

After dinner we went to Frigidarium, an outstanding gelato place. They have very reasonable prices and many varieties. The ones that we tried--for example banana, coconut, coffee, and chocolate--had very intense flavors. We often passed by the place and it would always have long lines of people waiting in the evenings. This time we understood why.

The next morning Leslie, Graham, Ana and I took an early car to the airport for our flights home. Ana and I flew through Frankfurt again and the trip was uneventful. Andrew came to SFO to pick us up and we headed home--tired but full of experiences to remember.