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ITALY - DAY 2
We headed off this morning early to the shop from yesterday and purchased Angelique's present. We then headed into town to wander around before our tour to the crypts and catacombs.
We got as far as Flaminio station. Pasqual decided that he would take the present back to the hotel and drop off our passports so he wouldn't have to carry them around with us. While he was gone we wandered through the street stalls looking at the shoes, clothes and a million other things that seem to be in stalls at every station. Angelique got a new pair of sandals.
Pasqual arrived and we continued our journey into the heart of the city. We arrived to discover that our ticket we needed for the excursion was in the bag Pasqual had just left at the hotel. So it was back to the hotel for Pasqual, while we walked around the streets near Via Veneto (made famous by the film 'La Dolce Vita').
Pasqual came back and we wandered through narrow streets in search of the Fontana di Trevi. We came across it and stared in awe at this magnificent fountain. It was wonderful. Of course we all had to throw a coin into the fountain to ensure we come back to Italy, then we headed back to Piazza Barberini to board the bus.
We headed out of the heart of the city past the city wall to the the Catacombe di Dominitilla. There we followed the tour guide down into the catacombs and saw burial sites of early Christians. By early Christians, I'm talking about burial sites that date back to the time just after Christ was crucified. Originally the catacombs were used by pagans but as Christians needed somewhere to bury their dead they took over the catacombs. The oldest catacombs were on the top and as they needed more space they just dug down to create a new level. There are four levels of catacombs. Christianity was legalised in 319AD.
Next we headed to Saint Clemente church, built in the 12th century, on top of a church from the 4th century, which was built on top of the ruins of a roman house from 2AD. This was fascinating. The church on top was exactly the same design and position as the church underneath, suggesting that the builders knew about the church underneath and even filled it in. A priest during 17th century kept hearing running water and they started digging discovering the church buried underneath. This was excavated but still he could hear running water. He never found where the water came from, however when they dug deeper, they found the roman building with an aqueduct. The water mystery was solved.
Finally we visited the order of the Franciscan Monks who have crypts and chapels of bones. Everything in each room was made from bones of the monks. There were chandeliers, clocks, absolutely everything was made from bones. If a piece of bone falls from the wall, it then has to be buried. There were quite a few well preserved monks in each room. Everything was related to three because of the holy trinity. Ellexis and Angelique were fascinated by these rooms. If you got past the fact that they were bones, it was quite beautiful in a weird kind of way.
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