Italy – Rome– Day 7 – Stephanie

 

Cat, Evan, and Kevin woke up early and went strolling the town early morning, bringing back a chocolate croissant and a honey covered croissant, along with a nice cappuccino for me and Diana.  After everyone was ready we went out for the day’s adventure, a “Hop On, Hop Off” bus tour of the major historical sights of Rome.  At this time my Fitbit says I’ve walked 5.74 miles.  I believe it!  We did a lot of sightseeing and walking in between the Off stops, and also got a fabulous lunch at a restaurant Cat picked out.  I finally got my homemade spaghetti dish I’d been looking for! 

We saw so many amazing sights!  The architecture and just the sheer fact all these ancient buildings remain is incredible!  My favorite though, was the La Crypte Des Capucin.  First you walk through a museum explaining the lives of the Capuchins that were separated from the Franciscans in 1525 to live the spirit of Saint Francis in a more authentic way, and to go back to basics. They wore sandals without socks and a tunic with a hood to cover their heads. The name of the capuchins is derived from this cap.  It contains the skeletal remains of 3,700 bodies believed to be Capuchin friars buried by their order. It was built between 1626 and 1631 by order of Pope Urban VIII, since his brother Antonio Barberini was a Capuchin brother. As a Cardinal, Barberini had the remains of thousands of Capuchins excavated at the Via dei Lucchesi Monastery and had their bones placed along the walls of the crypt like works of art and symbols. After that, the brothers also began to make their own bodies available.  Wow!  I myself could not get past the facial expressions of the friars.  Dead hundreds of years, but yet I could see the last expression they ever presented on their faces.  Some of them had smiles, some looked like they were screaming, and some had no expressions at all.  If you ever get the chance to see this piece of history, DO IT!

The other thing that I liked was something Kevin and I stumbled upon when we walked into an old church in the middle of some ruins.  We witnessed a religious ceremony.  At first we both thought it was the singing and chanting voice of a priest, but we found the room in which the ceremony was being held.  I saw 2 priests.  I’m not Catholic so I have no idea what was going on, but the chanting and singing was beautiful!

The day’s pics should speak for themselves.  I won’t bore you any more with my ramblings.  Kevin is taking a nap, CED just got back, and I think we may go hit the town for an evening stroll later on.

Fino a domani (Until tomorrow) – Stephanie

PS  Please remember that most of these photos were taken from a very bumpy bus and thru the glass window at times!