Day 36 (7/10/11):

Today's plan was to go to mass at Santa Maria Maggiore and tour that church a bit, then head to the catacombs in the afternoon. I woke up this morning, looked up the info for both places, and headed out to attend the 12:15 p.m. mass.

I love the story behind Santa Maria Maggiore. Mary appeared to someone in a dream and told them she wanted a church to be built in her name, and that she would be in touch about the location. Later that year, on August 5, people in Rome woke up to discover a thick layer of snow on one of the hills in the city. No other part of the city had even a flake on the ground! They took this as Mary's sign, and the Pope carved an outline in the snow of what the church would look like. Every year since then, on August 5, the church holds a mass where white petals fall from the ceiling in memory of the snow that initiated the construction of the church. Pretty cool, I think!

Anyway, I ended up arriving a little late to mass since it actually began at 12:00 p.m. (this is apparently a normal thing for the websites to have incorrect information about places around Italy). It was a nice service, and afterwards the church was open for touring, which worked out great for me. There is so much mosaic inside!! It's incredible how small all the pieces are, and how large the full mosaics are - they take up whole walls!

After exploring the church for a while, I walked down the street and treated myself to a nice little lunch at a restaurant called Cottini. I got an incredibly delicious salad, and then ordered a panna cotta for dessert with frutti di bosco sauce. I actually didn't mean to order that, and instead wanted one of the little fruit tarts… but I said panna cotta and the waiter walked away before I realized what had come out! It was still good, though, so it turned out ok :o)

After lunch I tried to find my way to the Catacombs, but got very turned around. The directions online told me to take a bus that actually didn't start running until 5:30 p.m. (after the catacombs have closed for the day), so I eventually had to stop pretending that I'm a local, and pull out my map to figure out how to get there. Once I was on the right bus, I met a really nice couple from Canada, and we got to chatting about our travels, etc. I really love how friendly everyone is, and how easy it is to just strike up a conversation with strangers!

We arrived at the Catacombs, and we able to see San Callisto, which is one of the bigger ones. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures, so I don't have any to post. It was really interesting, though! The holes where tombs were are in every inch of space! There were different rooms to hold mass services, and separate rooms for families to be put there together. There are 17 Popes buried there, too! It was a short tour, but well worth it.

Afterwards, I took a bus back to the city center with my new friends, and we eventually parted ways. I stopped at the bookstore and foodstore on my way home, and in both places someone thought I was a local :o) I love that! Afterwards, I headed home for the night, made myself some dinner, did some homework, and eventually went to bed.