Europe 2017 - The Baths, The Appian Way, and The Catacombs

Geez Louise, I'm FINALLY on the last day of our trip! Perhaps I've put it off because writing this really means that the trip is over. Or perhaps life and the holidays the responsibilities of being a wife and mother have kicked back in. One of the two.

(**Side Note: It has now been THREE days since I started writing this post! Good heavens!)

Our last day in Rome didn't have any set in stone plans, which is pretty unusual for a trip planned by me. But that's because we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to see and lots of things are closed on Sundays. We looked into going to church, but the closest building was an hour bus ride away. No thanks. We decided to check out a bunch of Catholic churches and such and call it good.

The Baths of Diocletian were the first thing on the agenda that lazy morning. To get there we passed by the Piazza Republica, which is so quintessentially Roman that a movie was being filmed there! There were all sorts of 1960/70s cars for the set and we could see all sorts of workers and characters.

It took us a minute to realize what was going on, but then we saw this old smoking grandma and her grandson in the back of a truck, and figured it had to be some sort of film!

We got to the garden at the baths, which were pretty. We decided not to pay to go into the museum because it wasn't very highly rated by Rick and we were pretty done with museums and ruins by then!

As you can see, it was a beautiful morning - no jackets needed!

I declared this to be the worst fountain of our trip. ;) (My dad should be happy to know that sprinkler problems are also universal.)

We also didn't go into the museum because you could go into the Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, a basilica that was built in part of the original Roman Baths. (Those Romans - they sure loved GIANT BATHS.) It was designed by Michelangelo, and it showed - pretty spectacular!

So we wandered the church for a bit and were about to leave when I decided to go check out the organ.

It was pretty impressive. And then this guy started moving stuff around by the organ. See him in the lower right corner of my picture?

And then he sat down at the organ and started messing with it. And we decided it'd probably be a good idea to sit down.

And it was. This man started playing and playing and playing. Song after song, all from memory.

The best was Bach's Toccata in D minor - it was AMAZING. We sat and listened and it was probably one of the coolest things on our trip, really and truly, because it was beautiful and unexpected and free. I'll never forget it! Eventually some man started telling everyone in the church that we had to leave. Maybe they were going to do mass or something.

So we went back out to the piazza and the movie was still being filmed. In fact, we were herded over behind a bus so we wouldn't be in the shot. It was really interesting. For starters, it was fun to watch the scene being filmed. All these old cars and the grandma in the truck would drive around the circle. Then this gaggle of priests, some in black and others in bright purple cassocks, would cross the street. When they got to the circle they encountered a couple of ladies of the evening, and one priest would stop to talk to them. This scene was shot several times and then we were allowed to leave, so I don't know what happened next. So if you ever see an Italian film with that scene in it, Lance and I were stuck behind an orange and white bus on the east side of the piazza!

Next we decided to make a pit stop at home. Partly because we didn't have firm plans for what to do next, but mostly because I really needed a bathroom and Europe does not believe in free public toilets. Here's a pretty door I must have seen on the way.

And here's the door to our apartment. (Climbing three flights of stairs got to be pretty old pretty quick.)

We eventually decided to venture to the outskirts of Rome to see the Appian Way and some catacombs. We took the Metro to the very far south of the city and then took a bus from a semi-sketchy bus stop. When we got to our destination it started to rain. A lot. Fortunately, there was a cafe near by and we got some lunch. (And it didn't cost an arm and a leg!) We ate outside under a canopy, and the hot food tasted all the better because it was chilly!

The rain never let up so we decided to just hoof it down the ancient road. It was really pretty, even in the rain and gloom.

You wouldn't think of cacti in Rome, but these were all over the place, plus palm trees and such.

We walked about a mile down the road to the Catacombs of San Callisto. There were all sorts of ruins to look at on way, as well as old churches, homes, and other soggy tourists. (Although there weren't too many of those!) We stopped by this cute little grotto.

And we walked down this one path lined with olive trees that actually had olives on them!

We got to the catacombs in time to buy the tickets, check out the gift shop, and hit the toilets before the tour. I only have a picture of the toilet because it perfectly represented the majority of Italian toilets on this trip - no seat! The first time it happened I thought I had just picked a bad stall, but nope. Most of the women's restrooms appear to have had seats at some point, but not anymore. It was odd and you had to balance a little more, but I've used worse. (Like holes in the ground in Israel!)

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the catacombs themselves, which was kind of a bummer. Our group was a bit too big and it was sometimes hard to hear the guide, but that's okay. We got the gist of it. There are still lots of little chapels down in the catacombs that still get used - the guide said they average about 1,000 people a day! Probably because there are some popes and saints buried down in there. And in those catacombs alone there are over 500,000 people buried! That's a lot of dead Christians. (This made it seem appropriate for a Sunday!)

We had hoped the rain would let up for the walk back. It did not. Here's our feet on the actual Ancient Appian Way, which is pretty cool and crazy to think about!

Here's where we waited for the bus. Even though it's technically still part of Rome, it felt like the middle of nowhere!

We got back to our apartment and rested and listened to the rain, rain, and more rain. Lance decided he really wanted to eat lasagna while in Italy, which would normally have been fine, but most of the best restaurants in Rome are closed on Sundays. But he found a little place nearby. It was... okay. But there were lots of tourists there.

But after dinner we did have one last gelato, and it was delish. Pistachio and chocolate will always remind me of Italy.

Walking back home was a little depressing, even after running into this weird fountain. The last night of vacation is always hard, because as nice as it will be to sleep in your own bed, it's super hard and not at all fun to get back to reality and all the responsibilities and stresses that brings.

Especially after having an AMAZING trip like ours.