Day 13 Rome

This morning we decided to escape crowds and explore yet another of Rome’s neighborhoods, San Giovanni. It is Sunday so there was a mass in almost every church we walked to, and we walked into quite a few, starting with Santa Maria Maggiore just a couple of blocks from our hotel. It’s another beautiful church. Then we walked to the church of San Clemente, which we wanted to visit because of its three levels starting with the pagan temple of Mithreus 10 meters below ground, then an early Christiam church from around 300 A.D. and finally, the current church from the 15th century. We walked around the newest church because the lower levers were closed until noon. We decided to go to the Basilica of San Giovanni in the meantime. It is a huge church that serves as the cathedral of the city of Rome. There was a mass going on, but the church was still open to visitors. There were lots of confessionals and each of them had languages listed in which you can confess. Also, every church has a sign saying that they don’t allow people in shorts and women in sleeveless outfits. They are pretty strict about it. After San Giovanni, we went back to San Clemente ( with a stop for cappuccino) and visited the three levels of the church. It was amazing, so well preserved. The only complaint we have is that the order of visiting was poorly marked and the descriptions were poorly lit and very difficult to read.

After hat became our typical rest in the middle of the day, we walked the Quattro Fontane street to Fonatna di Trevi again, and then to Corso. We stopped at Galeria Alberto Sordi, a very attractive shopping center and made our way through unbearable crowds to the Pantheon area. By the time we got there, we were so hot, so tired and so exasperated with the crowds that we decided to take refuge again in our favorite place with wifi. It is called Pantharei and it maybe 100 meters from the Pantheon in a narrow alley. Once you enter this alley, you are all of a sudden in a different, quiet world. People who work there are super nice, food is very good, wine is cheap and they have free wifi. This time, when we got there they told us they were closed because they were expecting an ambassador (or a group?) from Macedonia. They let us sit at a table in front of the restaurant though and have a beer and use the wifi, which unfortunately was so slow that we couldn’t use it. As we got in, three Irish computer geeks were leaving and also couldn’t praise the place enough. We felt much better after this rest stop and visited a nearby church Santa Maria Sopra Minerva and then took a bus home. We barely made it before a downpour.