12 hours in Rome - things to do

Thursday 25 July

9:00am: Breakfast

10:00am Walk to Barberini Metro, changing lines at Termini to get to:

10:15 Cavour Metro. Walk to:

10:30 San Pietro in Vincoli (St Peter in Chains) to see  Michelangelo’s Moses, one of the great man’s final works AND the actual chains that held St Peter while he was in prison prior to his death!!!. Take the train to:

11:00 Repubblica Metro  to the Santa Maria in Vittoria church to see Bernini’s sculpture of The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Take the train to Ottaviano Metro and join the throng on the way to:

11:45 The Vatican to see the Obelisk. Take the train to:

12:30 Piazza Di Popolo – Obelisk. Take train to Barberini Metro to:

1:00 Piazza di Barberini – For lunch of pizza, salad and beer on the sidewalk café overlooking the shrouded Tritone Fountain. Cross over to the “fountain” to:

2:15 Meet the Crypts and Catacombs Tour

2:30 Visit: Capuchin Crypt.  3000 skeletons used to create picturesque depictions of Life, Death, Hope, Resurrection, life after death.-Time Flies – an hour glass with wings, created with shoulder blades. There are several rooms (crypts) - The Room Of The Skulls, The Room Of The Pelvises, The Room Of The Shoulder Blades, The Room Of The Femurs. And a Caravaggio – St Francis contemplating death, of course. It is a fascinatingly eerie, strange and unusual place. Oh, and St Cecilia’s heart is on display in a special little glass cabinet. I do love the relics!

3:30 – 4pm- Drive out to the Catacombs and  pass Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore with two more obelisks, front and back and the oldest obelisk in Rome at 3500 years at San Giovanni Laterano, the first Christian church in Rome, built by Constantine.

4:00 Visit The Catacombs – Outside the City Walls. A huge vast area maze of underground crypts – miles and miles of burial niches, four levels deep.  A quarter of a million people were buried there.

5:00 Visit San Clemente Basilica to see the “lasagne effect” of Rome. Current ground level 18^th Century Basilica built on top of 12^th C Basilica, which was built on top of 4^th C church, which was built on top of a 1^st Century church, incorporating a pagan temple, on top of 100 BC apartment building, with running water to each room from an underground spring, 20 metres below 21^st C ground level.

6:00 Rest time in hotel

7:20 Go to dinner at Hostaria Romana. Enjoy artichokes romana, spaghetti carbonara, spaghetti con funghi, vino rossa della casa.

8:30 – return to hotel and go to bed.