Appian Way and Catacombs

 Sorry I didn’t do this blog earlier.  We had to get up and get moving yesterday morning, so I didn’t have time.

Thursday morning, we relaxed for a while at our place and we had some lunch there, eating up bits of things.  No rush.  But we had a tour booked for 1:45 pm over near the Coloseeum.  Off we went.

Of all the tours done in Rome, in terms of the guide, stories, and items of little-known interest, this was the one.  First of all, this is how we got around.  It was fun.

Our first stop was at a small church, along the Appian Way. The Appian Way was an extremely important road to the Romans.  If you took it all the way, to Brindisi, then across the Adriatic Sea, and kept going, you would end up in Istanbul (previously Constantinople).  “All roads lead to Rome.”

So, the story here at this little church is that it contains the footsteps of where Peter turned around.  Jesus met Peter and told Peter to go back to Rome.  He was escaping Rome because the pagans wanted to kill him.  Jesus met him right here.

The Appian Way actually goes right through this church - or the church is enclosed over that part of the Appian Way where Peter’s footsteps were.  There was a replica set of footsteps here.  But this picture shows his actual footsteps, enclosed in another church not far from the first one.

After showing us some more sites along the Appian Way, we stopped at the church of San Sebastiano.  There’s a story about Saint Sebastian and how he was killed twice, for good by the Emperor Diocletian, essentially for being a Christian.

At this church is where we entered the Catacombs.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the Catacombs.  Again, such an interesting story.  There is land out here where people are buried under ground in layers (3 layers, I believe).  It’s all outside the city walls of Rome because in those days, you didn’t bury people within the city.  We had a guide take us through a small bit of the Catacombs.  All these underground tunnels around oodles of tombs and graves that have been excavated.  Again, such an interesting story.  In total, in Rome, there are something like 150 km worth of tunnels (layered).  Not all at this location, of course.  Just incredible.

After we were done with the Catacombs, we continued along the Appian Way to a section of the original road - cars aren’t supposed to drive on it, but they do.  Not many road rules are heeded in Rome :/  They sure bounced around on this road.

In addition to the churches along the way, there were some estate buildings of ancient Romans.  The one guy had a space with his very own gladiator races for invitees to his home.

We turned around and rode along the outside of the Roman wall.  Not everyone knows there was a wall right around the city of Rome, a lot of which is still standing.  This is some of it.

It was initiated by the emperor Aurelian in 271 AD, for protection of the city.

Of all things, there was a pyramid built in Rome by Gaius Cestius.  As our guide put it, the emperors were all into building these giant things (arches, pyramids, statues, etc.) and then naming them after themselves.  Anyway, it was a tomb for him.  He got the idea from Egypt, of course.

We then stopped at Circus Maximus to take a couple of photos.  This is the largest ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium and for other mass entertainment.  Over 150,000 people could be in here at once.  It’s still in use today for entertainment purposes.

It was a most enjoyable tour.  We left the golf-cart and walked to our place for dinner, stopping along the way for a couple of refreshments.  I wanted to buy this as a T-shirt, but they only had a bag - and I already had one.

We had dinner at Trattoria der Pallaro, where Darlene and I had a dinner 18 years ago!  It’s still there and still does the same thing - they decide the menu and you just eat what they give you.  Along with a jug of wine.  Everything was so good.

That was the end of our day, and our time in Rome.