Quinto Giorno - Introspection

It is now my fifth day in Rome and I think it has been the first day that I have actually slowed down enough to really take in the fact that I am here. I am actually in Italy. It is a crazy concept, but it has sunken in. Today we got up bright and early and walked to the Trastevere. But, instead of walking straight into the windy streets of Trastevere we took a right down a small street that led to a big set of stairs. We climbed the stairs and continued up hill. We climbed up more stairs, until we reached a park that overlooked the whole city. You could see almost everything in the city from the vantage point and it was beautiful. Then we continued to explore that upper part of Trastevere. So we got our morning workout out of the way(haha.)

After this we went on a search to find three churches in Trastevere.

• Basilica de San Cecilia


• Basilica de San Cristogono


• Basilica de San Maria a Trastevere

We went to San Cristogono first. It is a 3rd century constantinople church which was originally dye works/factory/house. After a little persuasion of a cute old italian man, we got to go underneath this church as well and we saw our first real sarcophogus which is a tomb where they would put the dead, kind of like a coffin. They were made out of marble and had intrincate carvings on the outside. The dead person was always depicted in the middle and all around them were pagan gods and goddesses. We also came upon a sarcophogus that had real bones in it! People in ancient times would keep their loved ones bones in a box to remember them. It wasn't creepy or strange to them, it was sacred and a way of honoring the dead.

Then we went to San Cecilia and a wedding was going on! We thought about crashing the wedding but instead we went underneath the church to the crypt of San Cecilia. There was an extremely ornate chapel in this that had depictions of many different animals. The christians would have different animal depictions in their churchs as a way to sneak in left over reminants of Roman pagan beliefs. To an normal onlooker it seems that there are just animal paintings on the walls but they mean more than that. We saw peacocks which represent the goddess Juno, deer which represent the god Artemis and Rams which represent the god Bacchus. Peacocks symbolize eternal life as well. We also saw larareium's which were niches in a domus where the God of the house was kept. Snakes and serpents were depicted as guardians of the larareium's. The statue of St. Ceclia in the exact position she is supposed to have died in is at the front of the church, so we climbed the steps back up to the ground level and went to see it(the wedding was over by this time, SHUCKS.) It was a beautiful statue in white marble, yet slightly gruesome. To think she died with her head cut that way and her hands tied together in such a painful manner! Once you get past that though and if you look close you can see her three fingers are up. This is supposed to symbolize the trinity.

After this we were all famished and tired. I walked straight back to St. Johns with Domenica our translater and got to talk to her all about Italy. It was so interesting, she told me about her experiences and how much she did here and it really made me want to look into living and working in Italy after college. Once I got back I had a quick lunch of prociutto and mozzarella and then headed out to find a nice place to right in my personal journal. I wandered towards the river and found a park that surrounds Castel de San Angelo and I sat there for about two hours just writing. It was so relaxing and just what I needed to give me a boost to keep going. I will definitely be returning.