Exploring & Learning Lessons

We got to sleep in on Monday, but when I say “sleep in,” I really mean it was sleeping in for my parents/grandparents and a brutal wake up call for me. Even though it was only 9 in the morning, I struggled waking up (probably because it was 8 in the morning in England and about 2 in the morning in America). We ate breakfast in the hotel, which was a nice buffet, just mainly of foods we were unsure of. Most of them are at least similar in some way to things we usually eat, so we had to keep an open mind. I was shocked at how many dessert foods they had out for breakfast. I was actually still full from the dinner we had the night before so I was happy to see that they had English Breakfast tea, which I had in addition to a small bowl of cereal that was very similar to the chocolate Special K cereal.

This day was originally supposed to be our first tour day with our tour guide, but the weather forecast showed storms so we got the tour moved to Wednesday, which was going to be our free day. So we basically just flipped our Monday and Wednesday schedules.

After breakfast, we finished getting ready for the day and then decided we would go see the Catacombs. It’s a really good thing we decided to ask the guy at the front desk what the best way to get there would be because we considered walking there, but thanks to his suggestion we ended up taking the subway and a bus to get there, and there’s no way we could’ve walked that far.

Figuring out the subway system was a little tricky because everything was in Italian, but thanks to maps and a few questions along the way, we managed to not get lost on the subway (thank you, Lord). The bus was another place that I feared for my life...they cut sharp corners, braked at the last minute, and nearly ran over a few pedestrians. The road that actually took us down to the Catacombs was cobblestone and the bus flew down that road, which was probably the scariest experience of my life. I was very glad to have my feet touch the ground again after getting off that bus.

There are about five different catacomb locations in Rome that you can go see but we went to the Saint Sebastian Catacombs because we’d heard that those were the best to see and since the catacombs are all pretty similar, it's kind of a “once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” type of thing. Peter and Paul may be buried in the Saint Sebastian Catacombs so that was pretty neat to learn about. I say "may be buried there" because there are several possible locations for their tombs, so they may or may not actually be buried there.

We had to wait for a tour that was given in English and then we were given the tour for a good 20-30 minutes in the underground tombs. It was kind of spooky to be down there because it was pretty cold and fairly dark. It was kind of hard to understand the tour guide (even though he spoke English, he had an Italian accent), but the things he told us about the tombs were very interesting. He told us about Saint Sebastian, who the tombs are named for, who was a Christian who was persecuted in Rome. He was captured by the Romans and shot with multiple arrows, which miraculously did not kill him. After escaping this death, he returned to the streets to preach the gospel. He was then arrested again and flogged to death. This story really touched me. Would I be bold enough to return to the streets to proclaim the gospel after such a cruel attempted murder? The fearlessness of the apostles and saints in Rome during that time are beyond what I can fathom. The overwhelming amount of belief in polytheism at the time put the Christians in a hard place and their example of faith & courage is definitely inspirational.

After leaving the catacombs, we rode the bus back toward the center of the city and stopped for lunch at a little pizza & pasta place. I had a ham and cheese calzone, which was really delicious. Most of us tried some dessert here and I had a chocolate soufflé, which seriously may be one of the most heavenly desserts I’ve ever tasted.

We then spent the rest of the evening up until dinner exploring the city. We rode the subway to the Opera House, took some pictures there, and then walked several blocks in hopes of finding the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately, we never found it, but the Trevi Fountain was included in our tour on Wednesday so we knew we’d get to see it anyway. My grandparents were able to find some souvenirs while we were out and my parents got me a nice, embroidered t-shirt that says “Rome, Italia” on it.* Thanks again, Mom and Dad :) Just getting to see all the modern buildings next to ones that had been there for centuries was really neat. We all had a really great time exploring.

*If you know me, you know I don’t need any more t-shirts in my closet. But I mean...when in Rome... :)

We were planning to eat dinner at a place called “da Paolo” or something like that near our hotel because it looked like a nice full-out Italian restaurant, but when we went there around 6 or 7, it was closed! Apparently most of the restaurants in the city are able to do well by just opening during lunch hours and will shut down at night, so we had to explore a little bit to even find a place that was open. I was so full from dinner that I only had a bowl of fruit for dinner, but from what my family told me about their food it wasn’t really the best. When we got back to the hotel, the lady that had checked us in the day before was there and we told her about what happened. We told her the name of the restaurant we ate at and she said, “ooo yes that not good.” Gee…good to know. She then continued, “Next time you go eat, you come check with me, I tell you good place to go.” Haha, again…wish we’d known that sooner. Lesson learned, though.

I’ll continue to post updates from our Rome trip. I’m sorry I didn’t post them while we were there, but as you can imagine I was busy enjoying Roma! :)

I hope you’re enjoying reading about our travels!

Grace and Peace.