When we finally got going our first stop was a 13th century church only a block or so from our apartment, St. Clements Basillica.
Mom and Aunt Beth had gone there for Sunday Mass the other day,and saw a sign there was an archeological site underneath the building so we went back today to check it.
It turns out the current day church was built in about 1275 AD over an even older church built in 300 AD, and that one was built over a Pagen temple from 100 AD, and that was built over some Roman buildings original to the site in about 200 BC. Wow! So basically the whole site is 2200 years old and the "new" church is 800 years old! It turns out you could buy a ticket and go down inside the excavated areas below the current church. It was one of the coolest things we have seen in Rome! There were mosaic stone floors, and Fresco's that had been bricked over, some of the original altars, columns,statues, weird narrow passages
and even a natural spring that dumps into the base of the building. We thought our dad would have loved it because it had a spring bubbling out of the wall and about 1000 years ago the whole floor was covered with bricks in a herringbone pattern, which has been uncovered. Dad loves natural springs and herringbone bricks so we wished he was there to see it with us!
After we left St. Clements we walked to the Baths of Caracalla. It turned out to be a bit more of a walk than we bargained for, but we saw some other interesting stuff along the way. For one thing, we found some orange trees full of oranges growing along the street.
The kids each picked one and sampled them. They were sour and didn't taste good at all! Ha, ha! It was fun to find them and pick one anyway.
We also saw some big green parrots in the park near a villa. There were about 4 of them on the fence when Ben walked up, but they were too quick for us to get a photo of. They flew away when we got nearby, but some of us did get a glimpse of them through the trees. Who knew Rome had parrots, oranges and even palm trees?
Along our walk we also saw some of the ruins on Palantine Hill, which is where the ancient Roman Emperors palaces were and we stopped at the city wall that runs all the way around Rome and has been there for centuries.
We finally got to the Baths of Caracalla and learned they were a place where the aquaducts carried water for the Romans to bath and relax together. They also had exercise rooms, could get massages and would basically spend the day socializing when they went to the baths.
Afterward we walked over to Circus Maximus. That was an ancient Chariot race track that is now in complete ruin.
It was a half mile track that held 12 races each day all year round. The stands held 250,000 people and they were all cheering and betting on one of four teams. Every Roman had a favorite team they rooted for and there was a lot of competition between the citizens about who's team was best. This was a favorite passtime for everyone and if you couldn't get a seat at the Coleseum this was always an excellent alternative. Mitch, Ben, Jake and Mom all had to go around the ancient track at least one full loop. Ben and Jake did a combination walk/run and Mitch and Mom a slow jog, but we made it all the way around-Yay!
After Circus Maximus we headed back home for pizza and to watch Gladiator, which we downloaded onto the computer.
We had another fun day seeing the sites around Rome!
Ciao for now~
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