Day 17: Tombs, Bones and Trees!

An all day field trip in Rome, packing for the weekend and a 5 a.m. wake up call does not leave much time for blogging. So I will cut to the chase and post some pictures from today, and come back and fill in explanations later! This is what we discovered in Rome today:

We visited the Catacombs (underground tombs) of Saint Sebastian's. Hysterical tour guide and very chilling stories.

This is 28 meters underground--wouldn't have guessed it, huh?

Frescoes from a well-preserved tomb of a Roman family.

Where Saint Sebastian is buried!

Our tour guide... I think you might have had to have been there to understand.

Check out her sweet purse that doubles at a microphone amplifier. Gotta get me one of those!

The church above the Catacombs. Beautiful!

Second we visited Capuchin Bone Crypt. It is the resting place for over 4,000 Capuchin friars, who died between 1528 and 1870, as well as several poor Romans. There are thousands of bones that line the walls and ceilings and are nailed in intricate patterns, some even serve as working light fixtures and hang from the ceiling. Creepy? Extremely! I got very weirded out at this place... using bones as decoration? That's taking it a bit too far.

Chilling.

Decorations on the ceilings...

Then we visited Castel Sant'Angelo. This picture below isn't it (that's St. Peter's Basillica).

This is the Castel!

And how do we survive 7 a.m. wake up calls? Coffee in Nalgenes.

A prettier picture of the Tiber River!

We all were in a stripe mood this morning!

Before our visit to the Jewish Ghetto, Becca and I got a little pick-me-up from a Cafe. We split a mini artichoke and paremesean quiche and a mini strawberry torte! It got us through the next two stops. Thank you Mr. Caffe!

Some of the group in the main square of Trastevere (a really cool neighborhood of Rome)!

And for lunch? Pizza! Except this time they cut the slice in half and folded it as a sandwich. So I prefer to put this meal under the panini category. Deliciousness!

Me creeping on some Monks who were sitting beside the Tiber River. When I saw them all I could think about was the Crypt we'd visited earlier that morning...

Look at this orange Vespa!!

Jewish Ghetto visit....

Becca's sunglasses broke :(

The Mouth of Truth! (details to come later)

The Garden of Orange Trees

A great view of Rome from the terrace in the Garden of Oranges!

Lastly, the Knights of Malta Keyhole (details to come later)

Looking through the keyhole.

OK there ya go! Like I said, I'm off to Positano and Pompeii for the weekend so I probably won't Blog until Sunday night! Have a fabulous weekend everyone :) Much love from Italy.