VanKosh World Tour - A Canadian Family Travels Around the World

Rome was wonderful.  We saw so much and enjoyed so much.  

We stood three feet from the Pope and Quinn was thrilled to touch his hand.  You can see the video of that on our Facebook page.  Quinn also wrote a story about it which you can read here.  We had to get up early to get good seats and we certainly got great seats.  The crowds were massive.  We stood right behind the barricades where Pope Francis rides on the popemobile.  It was quite the experience.  People were shouting Papi, Papi, Holy Father and other things in languages I couldn’t understand. After he rides through the massive crowds twice, he begins his address to the people.  It is spoken in many different languages.  At the end, Pope Francis gives a blessing to the crowd.

Our Vatican tour was great.  Jaxon wrote a story about this tour and you can read it here.  It was led by a nun who described the art to us by talking about the Christian meanings of the paintings.  She was very funny and provided a heap of information.  We also climbed to the top of the Vatican Dome and the boys got to see the fabulous view from the top. (Tom and I did this climb 13 years ago and we had discussed with the boys how amazing it was.  They were very excited to be following in our footsteps (pun intended))

We visited the Capuchin crypts where monks created crypts using the bones from over 3,700 bodies. Even though the bones and skeletons are hundreds of years old, some of the bones still have skin on them.  The skeletons and bones were used to create these unbelievable designs.  Photos aren’t allowed in the crypts so we didn’t take any of our own. However, other people took photos which they shared in tripadvisor and consequently we are sharing here.

We also visited the Catacomb of Santa Priscilla.  This was my favourite.  It is one of Rome's first underground Christian cemeteries and contains burials from the late 2^nd century through the 4^th century. It also has the world's single oldest depiction of the Virgin Mary.

Imagine a dark underground corridor full of stacked graves from floor to ceiling.  The graves we saw were all empty and stacked anywhere from 3 to 8 along the wall. The graves were dug right into the tufo (type of volcanic rock) and were small maybe 12 to 24 inches high, 16  to 24 inches deep, and 4 to 5 feet long. 

The corridors seem to go on forever and were very dark and eerie.  Tom brought a flashlight so we were able to take a peek down some of them that didn’t have any lights.  We only saw a small portion of the catacombs but it was still amazing.  Our guide told us that there are about 60 catacombs in Rome of which 6 or 7 are accessible to the public.   As many places we were disappointed to see graffiti in the catacombs.  However, upon closer examination, much of the graffiti we saw had dates from as far back as 1777.  Many were from the 1800’s and some from when WWII was taking place.  It’s interesting that even 200 hundred years ago people felt compelled to write their names along with a date on a wall.

We then visited a Basilica of San Clemente which was a Church dedicated to San Clemente.  Beneath the current 12th-century basilica lies a 4th-century basilica and beneath that, a 1st-century Mithraic secret temple, apartments, and long-lost stream! Our guide told us about the strange rituals carried out in the cult temple and the story of the priest who almost lost his mind trying to find this buried stream.  The below church and 1^st century temple weren’t discovered until 1870 when a priest thought he heard running water below the existing church and started digging.  Wow, what a discovery he made!  Imagine building a church on top of another church with high vaulted ceilings and inlaid floors.  It was pretty fascinating. 

Another very exciting tour was the Coliseum.  Nathan wrote a great story about our visit.  You can read it here.  Last time Tom and I visited Rome, tourists were not allowed to go underground or to the upper tier.  They have now opened this up and a limited number of tourists are allowed to visit these areas.  It was remarkable to be below the arena floor where the animals and gladiators waited to go above for their fight.  They have created a working model of how they believe the manual elevators worked that brought the people and animals up to the arena floor through the trap doors.  We also were able to go up to the upper tier where the view was spectacular.   

Best Things about Rome

• Coliseum – Nathan
• Underground Coliseum - Tom
• Seeing the Pope - Quinn
• Vatican - Jaxon
• Catacombs - Kim

Worst Thing about Rome

Trevi Fountain was closed for restoration

Funniest thing in Rome

We were getting tired of the obnoxious street vendors asking us to buy their stuff.  We constantly heard “Selfie stick, Selfie stick Selfie stick” or rosarys for “one euro, one euro, one euro”.  We decided to come up with a response which was totally random and made no sense.   When the street guys would get in our faces, one of us would simply look at them and say “I like corn”.  They didn’t know how to respond or what to say wand would just walk away from us.