Rome Day #1

Tuesday morning we hit the road early, loading up a 55-passenger bus and driving to Arezzo to catch a 7:46 train to Rome. Everyone got his luggage onto the train without incident, and although the train was crowded, we all found seats. In fact, my family was able to lay claim to a compartment in the mostly day-coach train after the first forty-five minutes or so, having to share it with just one other person for most of the journey. The train arrived in Rome around 10:30, and after taking a bathroom and snack break, we loaded our hired bus for the day.

Roman traffic is horrendous, at least in the center of town. Nearly every road was under construction, and it took us nearly thirty minutes to go the mile between the train station and the Capitoline Hill. When we reached Piazza Venezia, I pointed out the "Mussolini balcony" and the monument to the united Italy's first king, Victor Emmanuel. However, the bus was unable to stop there for pictures; it dropped us off down the street from the Capitoline, and we hiked back to walk up Michelangelo's ramp to the Campidoglio. After an orientation atop the hill, we descended the other side to the Mamertine Prison, which the students found fascinating. We spend the next hour or so walking through the ancient Forum and ascending the Palatine Hill. It was only the second time I had actually gone inside the ruins and my first time on the Palatine, so I particularly enjoyed that.

We exited the Forum around 1:45 and had about 30 minutes for a lunch break by the Colosseum. Dr. Gardner took the opportunity to walk over to St. Peter-in-Chains and found it locked up tight, so we were unable to peek in there that day. Also during that time, the group suffered its first successful pickpocket attempt. (There had been an unsuccessful attempt in Siena; the intended victim was our adult student who was former military, and the would-be pickpocket found himself on the ground with a crushed hand in short order.) One of our girls had removed her money belt and put it in her bag temporarily, and the thief had removed it without her knowledge. We did not discover the theft until we were back at the bus a few blocks away, and Jonathan went back to the Colosseum to retrieve it; somehow he had gotten word from the authorities that a passport had been recovered. The group went on without him for the time being.

I had asked the bus driver to take us by St. John Lateran so I could point it and the Holy Steps out to the students. We weren't able to stop there, unfortunately. We then went to the Catacombs of St. Calixtus, where Christians buried their dead from the late second century to the fifth century, for a guided tour. Because our group was so large, we had to wait longer than usual for a guide—Jonathan rejoined us before we went in, having taken a taxi from the Colosseum—and then the tour went slowly. The 30-minute tour took nearly an hour, but most of the students were in awe of the place. We were able to sing and pray briefly in the last chamber.

By this time it was nearly 5:00, and our driver took us to our hotel, which lay a few miles west of the Vatican, about a 10-15 minute walk from a subway stop. Jonathan took most of the students back into Rome on the subway that evening to show them the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona, but my family and a few tired students remained in the neighborhood of the hotel. We found a quiet restaurant and ate pizza there for supper before going back to the hotel to collapse. It was a fulfilling but tiring day.