Mom and Dad Visit Italy

This past week my mom and dad have been here so it was pretty busy but nice because I saw a lot of places that I hadn't seen before.  My mom arrived Tuesday and my dad Thursday and they just left this morning.  Since my mom arrived on the Ides of March, we naturally went to the location where Julius Caesar was assassinated.  The building where he was killed was called the Theater of Pompey, however it doesn't exist anymore, but my professor pointed out the building that is now on the specific location in the theater where it occurred.  We then walked over to Piazza Mattei where the Turtle Fountain is, which is one of the most famous Renaissance fountains in Rome.  That night we ate at a restaurant in Trastevere that was recommended by Rick Steves, my mom's favorite tour guide.  I think we ate at a "Rick Steves"restaurant at least once a day for the rest of the week.  

 Location of Caesar's assassination

Turtle Fountain

On Wednesday my mom and I went to the Villa Farnesina which is an old home of the Farnese's, a wealthy family that had some popes and cardinals as relatives.  The Villa Farnesina was decorated with frescoes by Raphael and it was really amazing inside.  Unfortunately, there were no pictures allowed inside.  We didn't do much else on Wednesday because I still had a class and it was pouring rain all day.  

On Thursday, my dad arrived and we went over to Campo de' Fiori, where the market is, so I could show my parents where I buy dried fruit.  It was also the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification so there were a lot of people out and Italian flags everywhere.  Then I showed them around the Jewish Ghetto area where the remains of the  Portico of Octavia and the Theater of Marcellus are. just went to other main sights such as the Pantheon, Colosseum, and Largo Argentina.  My mom also brought Flat Stanley with her so we had to stop at all the places and take a picture of Flat Stanley with the Pantheon, etc. in the background.  I am pretty sure anyone who was watching us thought we were really weird.  Flat Stanley was left with me so I have to continue taking pictures of him everywhere I go.  

Artichoke pyramid in the Jewish Ghetto

Friday was finally nice out so we went on a day trip to Orvieto.  We walked around the town stopping at the Duomo, looking into the different workshops, and taking pictures of Flat Stanley with the landscape in the background.  Then my dad and I went into St. Patrick's Well, which is a giant well with about 400 stairs that you can walk down.  We walked into the well which was nice because there were openings in the wall where you could look both down at the well and then up at the sky, which slowly turned into a tiny circle of light.  After we got back to Rome, we went to the Cappuchin Crypt, which is a chapel underneath a church where there are thousands of bones of friars and monks.  Each room was decorated with different bones: one was skulls, another pelvises, and then thighs and legs.  There were also bone chandeliers and different decorations made out of small bones.  There were also some mummified bodies still in their robes sitting around the rooms.  It was really creepy and I don't know why anyone took the time to decorate every square inch of the rooms with bones.  There weren't any pictures allowed there either but here are some from online to show what it looked like.

 Mom and Dad in Orvieto

 Ceramics in Orvieto

 Looking up from the bottom of the well

Cappuchin Crypt

On Saturday, we went to the Appian Way, which is an ancient road built by the Romans to transport goods around Italy.  It was beautiful and it felt like we were in the countryside instead of a big city.  Along the Appian Way there are a lot of catacombs so we decided to go to the Catacombs of San Callisto, where we got a tour about two levels underground.  It was really dark and cold in the catacombs and I couldn't believe that people were actually buried there.  The guide said that the catacombs had four different levels and expanded about 12 miles.  She also said that there were about half a million people buried there.  The Catacombs of San Callisto is apparently one of 60 catacombs in Rome.  After the catacombs, we went to the Baths of Caracalla, which was a bath house where the elite people went during the Roman Empire.  The Bath house were a huge structure.  From the remains you could see that there were two stories and it was about the size of a huge stadium.  There were a lot of original mosaics on display featuring warriors and scenic images.  

 Appian Way

 Baths of Caracalla