Basilicas Galore

Welcome back to Rome, where there are endless religious sites to tour! Given the new-found blazing heat we encountered today, we spent most of our day inside old stone buildings that were plenty cool, both temperature-wise and interesting-wise.

We started off with Saint Paul's Basilica, which had the exciting addition of portraits of all the Popes. We enjoyed looking at the Latin notations under the portraits telling how long each one had served. Actually, it turns out my semester of Latin has come in handy- I don't know a lot, but between what I know of Latin, my Romance language expertise, and the religious context, I have been able to figure out a decent number of inscriptions. I can only imagine what my friend who is fluent in Latin would be like here!

After that we visited the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, or Mary, the mother of Jesus. (However, I think we decided it was St. Jerome who was actually buried there.) This one was very pretty also, with lots of gold and paintings. It's funny, but although that was most of what we saw today, I never get tired of looking at it! I liked seeing the different statues and paintings of Mary, because different artists portray her differently. Still, I think my favorite statue was in the next one...

...which was the nearby Basilica of Saint Mary of Angels and Martyrs. I'm not sure which Mary that's supposed to be, but we quite enjoyed being there as well. There was one set of painted columns that Heather and I swore were actually there until we took a better look!

The last one we visited was the Archbasilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, which is to Saint John the Baptist! I didn't even know that archbasilicas were a thing till just now. There was a mass going on, possibly a baptism, though we couldn't see very well. I understood some of the Italian when I was listening, but for the most part I was in awe of the ceiling- it was very ornate, with more gold than paintings. It is also one of the four major basilicas in Rome, along with Saint Peter's, Saint Paul's, and Santa Maria Maggiore. So we've been to all of them now!

We went back to the hotel again for a few hours, then tonight we went out to Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II and the Bridge of Angels to take pictures before dinner.

Sadly, this is our last big family vacation day- tomorrow I move into my apartment, so we'll likely be busy with that for most of the day, and then Monday I start class!

Saint Paul's Basilica.

The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

The Basilica of Saint Mary of Angels and Martyrs.

The Archbasilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.

The Tiber River, as seen from Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II.