One thing after another

Yesterday we went on another trip into Rome. We had originally intended to visit just the Trevi fountain, eat some gelato and see the church of the Gesu', but one thing led to another, and we passed many interesting things on our way that we had to stop in and see. So here is a photo-journal of everything we did yesterday.

We did start off by seeing the Trevi fountain in the morning. The Trevi fountain is the end of a 14-mile aqueduct that provided water to ancient Rome. The statues include Neptune riding a sea-shell chariot pulled by two horses, one symbolizing the calm sea, the other the tempestuous sea.


Philomena and Augustin each threw a coin into the fountain. Approximately 3,000 euros are thrown each day into the fountain. They are collected every day except Sunday and used to fund a supermarket for Rome's poor. An interesting piece of trivia....there is a man who makes it his practice to appear on Sunday and clean out the fountain of coins as best he can without draining it. The city recently attempted to put an end to this, but he defended his case in court, and because the fountain is public property, he was found not-guilty. The reasoning was that he was doing nothing different than a person who picks a coin up off the street. In any case, he made 156,000 euros last year.

This is a detail of the fountain with mom sitting in front of it.

Right behind the fountain is the church of Sts. Vincent and Anastasia. We had to duck in, and are we glad we did! Look at this beautiful interior.

A detail of the ceiling.

We left the church and passed by a streetside artist painting pictures.


We found out that the forum was free to visitors, so we decided to go. However near the entrance to the prison we saw the Mamertine Prison where St. Peter, St. Paul, various popes, and Vercingetorix the Gaulish chieftain were imprisoned. This is the interior of the Mamertine. To the left is the column that St. Peter was chained to. To the right is a small altar, with the cross upside down because St. Peter was crucified upside down. The relief in the back shows St. Peter baptizing his fellow prisoners.

The cell is very small, very damp, and not very high.

This is a small spring in the prison, that appeared after St. Peter prayed for a source of water to baptize his fellow prisoners.

Anthony and Alex show the height of the prison's ceiling.

After we left the Mamertine, we emerged into the sunlight and came to the Imperial Forums. The Imperial Forums contain a series of fora and temples that were constructed by various emperors from 46 BC to 113 AD. This is a picture of Anthony near the arch of Septimus Severus. On the relief, you can see a series of sculptures showing Septimus Severus' victories against the Parthians.


This is the underside of the arch showing the detailed carving.

This is a view of some shops and a temple.

I'm not sure what this part of a pillar is, but it had some legible words on it, including the name "Constantius".

It is amazing that you can do as Philomena is doing and sit on a piece of column nearly 2000 years old.

This is a shot of the temple of Saturn. This temple also functioned as the empire's treasury and was where all the gold and silver of the Roman empire was stored.

We got a call from Jozef and agreed to meet him at Santa Sabina on the Aventine hill. This is a statue of the Madonna and Child in the portico of the church.

The interior of the church showing the coffered wood ceiling.

One of the side altars, with a beautiful fresco of various Dominican saints.

The dome in the side altar.

The Aventine hill features a public park and a beautiful overlook that you can get a great view of the city from.