Rome October 14-15

I arrived in Rome on Monday October 14 at the start of a four-day visit, before heading on to the USA. This was my first time in Rome.

My flight arrived early in the morning and I took a bus into the Termini central train station. It was too early to check into my hotel near the Cipro Metro station north of the Vatican – the proprietor had sent me an email the day before asking me to specify a time of arrival – so I got a day Metro pass and took the A metro line to its two terminal stations and back. I then walked around the area of the Vatican, before checking into my hotel at noon. At the Termini station I made the foolish mistake of changing 100 US dollars into Euros. The rate should have been around 70 Euros, but the initial offer was 50 Euros and when I objected, the person at the counter offered me a rate of 59 Euros, still a major rip-off.

After a long nap in the hotel, I walked around the area of the Vatican, ending up in St Peter’s Square. The square was filled with weather-beaten chairs.

 

St Peters Square

St Peter’s Square is where I had arranged to meet Ivana Kvetanova, an archaeology colleague from Slovakia who had been a research fellow at ACOR in 2010. She is currently in Rome finishing a two-year study program at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology.

Ivana, who is a certified tour guide for Rome, came at 6:15 and she gave me a wonderful personal tour of Rome by night. We started by taking a bus up to the Gianicolo Hill and the Garibaldi statue there with a lovely view of Rome at dusk. We then walked down to the Trastevere area and had dinner, before continuing our walk through the city past the Tiberina Island, the Jewish Quarter, the Marcello Theater, the Farnese Palace, and the Navona Square, ending up at the Castel Sant’Angelo.

The next day, Tuesday October 15, I first went to the Church of St. Maria Maggiore, before going at to the nearby Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, where I met Ivana and Carmello Pappalardo, one of the Franciscans who had been working at Mount Nebo in Jordan in recent years; we went out for a quick coffee.

 

Carmello and Ivana

I then spent the rest of the day sight-seeing, by walking from the Church of St. Maria Maggiore to St John Lateran. I stopped at the Church of St. Praxedes and then went to the Museum of Oriental Art. I was the only visitor in the museum during the hour I was there, unlike most every place else I went that was overrun with visitors. I was especially interested in the museum’s collection of early Buddhist art.

An early Buddhist stone carving in the Museum of Oriental Art

I then proceeded down the street to the Church of the Holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter in Lateran and then arrived at the big Basilica of St John Lateran. My iPhone camera was not up to the task of taking good indoor photographs of these churches.

 

The Basilica of St John Lateran

 I then walked around further, passing by the Colosseum.

The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine under restoration

I then took the B Metro line to its end terminals and back, before returning to my hotel for a long afternoon nap; the metro lines are mostly underground, so my metro rides ended up being of limited interest. That evening I walked around the area of my hotel for a while.