A Walk Through Rome: UNGUIDED

+JMJ+
Greetings from Roma!

I have lots of pictures today!  So, I will attempt to tell my tales picture book style:
After a failed attempt at making it to Mass at the station church this morning, my RD and one of my classmates and I ended up going to Mass at the only perpetual adoration chapel in Rome.  I hadn't been there yet, and I have to say I was surprised.  It was not ancient and ornate; it was modern and plain.  At first, I was disappointed, but then my RD pointed out that because it is plain and modern, it keeps the tourists away.  This leaves a quiet place prayer in the heart of the city, which is practically unheard of.

After Mass, we had time to spare, so my classmate and I went to get coffee, of course.  We had breakfast too.  When you order cereal here, it is served to you in a bag!  So weird!

My cereal, in a bag, next to my itty bitty coffee cup

Just kidding.  That was a lie.  They don't actually serve cereal in bags here, though I wouldn't put it past the Romans.  They're not really sure what to do with cereal.  This is just how I packed mine this morning, so I guess I have no room to judge.  I don't think the guy at the coffee shop was too thrilled that I brought my own bag though...

Can you handle the classiness of my breakfast?

We were going to go to the catacombs for class today, but the buses were on strike today from 8:30am to either 12:30pm or 5pm, I'm not sure which.  Yep, they just do that here for fun.  The bus to the catacombs wasn't running, so we opted for plan B: St. Paul Outside the Walls.  The explanation for the name of the church is simple: St. Paul, because St. Paul's relic's are there/the tomb of St. Paul is there; Outside the Walls, because the church is built outside of the Roman walls.  BAM.  Here are some pictures:

The facade of St. Paul Outside the Walls.  The statue is of, you guessed it, St. Paul.  Shocker.

Inside St. Paul Outside the Walls (from the front of the church, facing the back...which is the front door, if that makes sense

Check this out: the windows are made of thin slices of alabaster!  Crazy!  Beautiful when the light shines through.

Now THAT is an Easter candle candlestick (tall pillar-looknig thing to the left of Gracie)

After our class, I had arranged to meet up with my RD for lunch, so I ventured out ALONE to meet up with her.  It was a humbling adventure.  I was determined to not be that tourist who has to pull that map out in the middle of the city, but after a half an hour of unproductive wandering, I had to consult the map.  *shame*  I finally made it to our meeting point...a half an hour late.  Needless to say, my RD was long gone, but I was just happy that I had finally made my way there.  Take that, Roma!

While waiting for the bus after class, I noticed this sticker on the bus stop sign.   Best encourage-vocations sticker ever!  Haha.  At least, that's what I thought it was...I hope it's not something horrible or anything....

I was on my own for lunch, so I took the remainder of my classy cereal-in-a-bag to a fountain in the middle of a busy piazza where a market was set up, ate my cereal, and read The Merchant of Venice  for class.  It was so lovely and enjoyable!  I can't even say how much I loved the combination of the atmosphere of the market piazza and Shakespeare.

My view from my lunch/reading spot

After reading for a while, I decided to walk to St. Peter's.  The walk to St. Peter's from where I was goes along the Tiber River.  Normally, I just walk on the sidewalk along the street that overlooks the river from above (the streets and city are way above the level of the river).  However, today, I decided to mix things up a bit.  I had noticed before that there is a path down by the river at river level and there are stairs that go to this path by the bridges.  Today, I decided to take that path.  This is what happened:

Check out hat mud!

The path was covered in mud!  I couldn't tell from above, but once I started out, I was slipping and sliding and sinking all over the place!  I kept telling myself, "It's just this one spot.  If I go a little farther, it won't be muddy anymore."  After about ten minutes of that, I realized I was wrong, so I turned around and went back to the normal sidewalk.  There was a gypsy woman sitting on the stairs who got a good laugh out of my efforts.  I'm glad somebody got to witness and enjoy it!

When I arrived at St. Peter's, the line to get into the basilica was HUGE.  But it moved quickly and would be worth the wait, so I got in line behind a group of Asian tourists.  I overheard some of their conversation and could tell they were Japanese! (I took Japanese in high school).  So, I joined their tour group, unannounced.  It was so fun!  I didn't understand most of what was said, but I picked up on a few words and phrases here and there.  The best part were the expressions of the people who started to realize that I was following them.  Too good.

Candid picture of my Japanese tour group.  The guy by the gates with his hand up is the tour leader.

My day pretty much just wound down after that, although I did have the excitement of finding BBQ sauce and soy sauce at an international foods store later.  That stuff is pretty hard to find around here!