Rome (Part 5)

On our last day in Rome we woke up extra early to be at St. Peter's Basilica just before it opened. The lines were normally so long to get into the Basilica, but getting there early meant we basically walked right in and it was relatively quiet and empty inside. I was surprised by how much I loved St. Peter's. It was by far one of my favorite experiences of the entire week in Rome. The architecture and structures of the Basilica are stunning. Everything is ornate and massive and it is impossible to walk through there without being kind of forced into silence by it all. I would go back to Rome just to visit St. Peter's again.

Teeny tiny Jules by the massive statue.

Confessional

Complete list of the popes. Amazing.

From St. Peter's we took a taxi to the Basilica San Clemente. The main floor of San Clemente dates back to the fourth century. BUT, the lower floors date back even further to the first century where a pagan temple (of the Mithraic religion) was located. Mass is still celebrated there daily (I would have loved to be there for a service). The relics of Saint Clement are still in the Basilica and are brought out during the Feast of Saint Clement for veneration and paraded through the streets. (That is from the official Basilica website). Fascinating, right? A Dominican Order of monks are still there. Sidenote: I am super fascinated by modern-day monks. The Monastic life is so interesting. I've studied it a bit and I am thinking I might do a bit more research on it.

Sadly, no pictures can be taken inside.

After lunch we began our trek to find the Pantheon. We walked. And walked. And walked. Rome is really hard to navigate. The layout of the city began very organically-- there is little or no organization or clear structure to the blueprint of roads and buildings. And, most of these roads are the same as they were in ancient times (in terms of the paths they follow)-- which is awesome in theory, and a real pain when you are trying to find something a bit obscure.

But, largely thanks to Courtney-- we found it!

The Pantheon was the very last thing on my Rome bucket list. So, hooray!!

Then it was back to the hotel for nap time.

The last night in Rome was my favorite. We got dressed and then just walked down the hall to eat on the terrace of our hotel. The evening was beautiful (though hot of course), and it was relaxing and easy and so much fun. Loved it. The wine was pretty good too :)

We went to bed early that night because we had to get up crazy early to head to the airport. We used a private driver again to take us to the airport (still worth every penny), and arrived in plenty of time for our flight.

Thus began an excruciatingly long day of travel. Our flight leaving Rome was delayed for several hours, I think we spent 4-5 hours in the airport there before our flight left. Then we had the long flight, which went well, but was well, long. Because of the first flight being delayed I missed my connecting flight in D.C. I had to separate from Court and Jules literally as we exited the plane (that was sad!), and I wandered off to try to figure out how to get home. Eventually I was rescheduled on a later flight into Charlotte (instead of Greenville), so I spent a few more hours in the D.C. airport, boarded the flight and then spent about an hour on the runway (in a teeny tiny plane) due to weather issues in Charlotte. I finally landed in Charlotte late, Daniel picked me up and I was probably the most painfully tired I have ever been. I made it almost the entire way home before Daniel had to pull over on the side of the road so I could vomit out the side door. I headed back to our townhouse to sleep, even though Daniel and the boys were staying at our new house. It took me about 28 hours of travel to get back home....

But, I sure was happy to see these two :)

Digging through all of the stuff I brought back for them.

I can't wait to plan another trip with Courtney and Julia. They really are the best travel companions. I hope Julia felt very celebrated that week. It was amazing.