I slept soundly – only the second time that happened on the whole trip. I woke up and lounged in bed, but then a small voice in my head started nagging at me. Usually flights leaving from Europe leave in the morning and return in the evening. I got out of bed and looked at our itinerary; I had read the wrong line, and our flight was really leaving at 10:45 am, and not at 4:30 pm. I looked at the clock, and it was 9:00 am. For international flights you are supposed to be at the airport two hours early. I told Mer what was going on, and we scrambled to get everything ready – we had only slim hopes of making it, but we had to try.

We dashed out of the hotel, grateful that we had paid the night before. The bus to the airport was not leaving for twenty minutes, so we jumped on the train instead. Amazingly, we got to the airport at 10:00 am – not bad for waking up at 9:00. Sadly, it was all for naught – we were told the plane was boarding, and we would have to rebook. I knew that was not going to be cheap, but we had no other option. We headed over to the ticket counter, where we were told our best option was to get the same flight out the next day, and, oh, yes, that would be $1,200 please. Ouch. Sigh. That put a bit of a damper on the day, but I am a practical man, so I was determined to try to make a day of it in Rome. Mer was gracious enough to forgive me, but she was a tad subdued for much of the remainder of the day.

On the plus side, we took the train back to the station, and the hotel manager was sympathetic and was also able to give us our room back for another day. He also honored his breakfast voucher for a light breakfast at a cafe down the street, and he even gave us Monday’s voucher as well, since we would be leaving before the cafe opened. He was a very nice man.

We settled things back in the room, and then grabbed our breakfast, which was muffins. They were quite good, actually. We headed back to the room, where I planned our bonus day, with some input from Mer. I’m not sure we could get a thousand-dollar day out of things, but I was going to try. We headed out around 1:00 and went to the train station, where we picked up an all-day metro pass, and we headed to the bus station, where we took a bus away from the city center, out to the Catacombs of Priscilla.

I had never seen catacombs before, and I figured touring something underground would be wise in the Roman midday heat. We got to the convent above the catacombs a little before they opened at 2:30, and we struck up a conversation with a family of four from eastern Pennsylvania. The doors opened at 2:30, and we got our tickets, and waited for the tour to start (they have English-language tours when there are enough English speakers).
We had a good-sized group of over twenty people, which made viewing parts of the catacombs difficult sometimes. Our group leader was a pretty and charming young woman who I think was Germanic, based on her accent; her English was excellent. The catacombs were very impressive – there are over forty thousand graves in over ten miles of tunnels. Groups follow a well-defined tour path, and can only stay down in the catacombs for thirty minutes because the volcanic rock of the catacombs naturally gives off radioactive radon gas. In fact, our tour guide told Meredith that she can only work one day a week because of the exposure to the gas.

The catacombs date back to at least AD 220, and include some of the oldest Christian art still in existence, including the oldest-known portrayal of Mary and an infant Jesus, which is in a ceiling fresco dated to AD 220. There are depictions of the nativity scene dating to around 280, as well as a few other frescoes that still survive. The graves along the tour are all empty (except for two graves that are still sealed with marble) because, sadly, early tours of the tombs included people who would take bones as souvenirs. The catacombs away from the tour route still have bones in them, but in most of the catacombs the marble that was used to seal the graves has been largely looted over the last eighteen hundred years.

I loved the catacomb tour. I like tunnels to start with, and I found it interesting and informative to be in such an ancient site. I would have rather caught my flight back home, but it was a grand way to make use of the day.
Mer and I decided to continue our “day of the dead” tour by taking a bus to the Capuchin Crypt, and the family from Pennsylvania went with us. The Capuchins are an order of Franciscan monks who are still active worldwide today. The Capuchin order has an interesting museum and a unique crypt in and under the church of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, a few blocks from the Spanish Steps. What most people come to see is the crypt, which has the bones and some bodies of former Capuchins arranged in six galleries. The bones are piled up and nailed to the walls to make decorations around the dried-out bodies of dead Capuchins who are still in robes, some standing and some lying down. As far as Mer and I could tell, no one seems to know who arranged the bones and bodies, or why, but they are quite sobering. I was very pleased that the Capuchins have used the attraction of the crypt to highlight the work they did and are doing around the world, and they also had at least two displays with a clear presentation of people’s need for Jesus; it was a great way for them to spread the good news of the Gospel, especially since you end up staring at a strong reminder that you too will die someday.

After the crypt, we said goodbye to the family from Pennsylvania, and Mer and I walked over to the church of Santa Maria del Popolo to see some artwork there. Along the way, we swung by the Spanish Steps, which is a popular tourist area and local hangout. We came at it form the top, and so we were able to go down the steps before continuing on our way to Santa Maria. The church has a chapel designed by Raphael, with two of Bernini’s statues in it, and the church has two paintings by our now-oft-seen Caravaggio – the Crucifixion of St. Peter and the Conversion on the Way to Damascus. Both are amazing paintings, but I think the Crucifixion of St. Peter is more striking and more focused. The church itself was a pretty church, and was located in a large square that had a crowd of people milling around, listening to a small band playing at one end. It was a nice little slice of social life in Rome.

We then headed back to the hotel to regroup and to check on cat-sitters back home. We still had not had supper, so we decided on heading to the Campo dei Fiori, which is a famous and popular square. Sadly, it is not easy to get to using public transportation, but we compensated for that by using the metro to get to the Colosseum. The interior was closed for the evening, but it is still impressive and iconic to see, and we walked from there to the square, which is a little over a mile.

Along the way, we got to see some of the ruins of the Roman Forum, and then we passed the huge memorial to Italy’s first king, Victor Emmanuel. From there we passed the Largo Argentina Ruins (ancient Roman ruins from around the time of Christ). The ruins were home to numerous feral cats – it was like a cat playground with all of the levels of columns and steps. We finally made it to the Campo, which was quite happening. I’m afraid at this point my two muffins had worn off, and I was pretty much a bear to be with. It took us a few tries to find a place to eat, but we finally settled on an outdoor pizza restaurant just off the main square. It was a very pleasant place to eat, and once I had eaten, I was more pleasant to be around.

We walked back to the Colosseum, which was a much shorter-seeming walk now that we knew where we were going. Even with its being about 10:00, the streets were still quite lively with people. Back at the hotel, Mer and I made sure our alarm was set for the next morning, and we got ready for bed. It was an expensive and unplanned-for day in Rome, but I was pleased we had made the best of a frustrating mistake.