This is the Chair of Saint Peter

On Tuesday, we headed to Rome for the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. You probably celebrated this feast on Tuesday at your local parish Mass. Me-- I celebrated it at the actual Chair itself.

Of course, this is within St. Peter's Basilica. All of those candles are not usually there. Notice the stain-glass window above the Chair?-- depicted is te Holy Spirit. So, the question is: Do you see a connection between the Chair and the Holy Spirit? Or, even more, do you see a connection between the Church and the Holy Spirit?

(please respond in 500 words or less)

This is Ostia Antica

Today, I ventured out of the Roman city-limits and headed south towards the Mediterranean Sea. Accompanied by four others (Lisa, Quanah, Elizabeth-Jane, and Amy), we toured the ancient city of Ostia. A metropolis of about 60,000 people, Ostia now rests in ruins, its buildings roofless and its streets empty, save for a few American tourists.

We explored every crevice, finding details to the past. Some of us (that would be me), even went into the ancient sewer system under the baths. Absolutely amazing!-- I never thought my four years of Latin class (and subsequent education in Roman culture) would be making a surreal reprise.

I can just imagine a Real-Estate agent trying to sell these baths as if they were a part of a house (even though they are not).
And here is the bath... isn't it nice? It really accents the rest of the house. Notice how it fits 50 people. What do you think?

Ummmm, I prefer mine with a bit more privacy, thankyouverymuch.

But, the floors do come with great murals...

This is St. Paul Outside the Walls

Today, I travelled to St. Paul Outside the Walls-- the fourth major basilica of Rome (and thus completing my tour). Lisa and I braved the 55-minute walk south from our house and were well reward by the beauty of this place. After going to Mass in a side chapel there, we explored the basilica-- from its relics to its courtyards. The inside is huge, but really too dark to get a good picture. The highlights can be seen below.

This first picture, taken in front of the basilica, in its main courtyard, is for Nita (hopefully this is brighter picture of moi).

The Relic Chapel at St. Paul Outside the Walls...

In the center container, you can see the chain of St. Paul. And in the upper-right corner, you can see the arm bone of St. Anne. Holy things... holy things... (and you can just feel the history coming alive!)

This is For Val

So, which basilica is your favorite? Cosmas and Damian? Hmmm... I live there!

This is My Courtyard

At the basilica, its courtyard-- which happens to be connected to where I live!

This is the Colesseum

Just as you'd expect it: precisely 378 paces from my door (give or take)

This is The Via Sacra

Yeah, you know that 2000 year-old road I was taking about.... well, here it is.

This is Trevi Fountain

Probably one of the most famous fountains in the world... how romantic!!! VAL, WHERE ARE YOU, BABE??? (Visit. ... please?.....)

This is the Pantheon

Famous for its dome with the air-hole at the top (which apparently keeps out the rain), the Pantheon is now a church and really quite cool. Not only that, but it has THE BEST gelatti place right up the street.

(Now go check out my archives for this past week's TOP TEN, as well as fifty other new postings!) Grazie!

This is The Top Ten

Rome is an incredible place to take pictures. And unless you put your thumb over your lens, you won't take a bad shot. And, well, I went a lot of places this week... so here are my Top Ten Pictures of the Week.


Number Ten: a street in-between the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. The sun was setting and accordian were playing behind me. Number Ten if not just for the memory itself.

Number Nine was taken at St. Mary Maggiore (Major). These angels are candleholders and are taller than me-- most definitely not for your dinner table centerpiece. So awesome!

Number Eight: after no pictures of the Colesseum-- and being that it is 5 minutes from my house (I see it everyday)-- I decided to take one. Funny how it makes my Top Ten (... twice!). It is not the best picture, but it was one gorgeous day-- and what with the cold and rain we've had lately, it makes my Top Ten.

Number Seven hails from my own residence here in Rome. On the second day I was here, I woke up with the sunrise (silly jetlag). The sun was coming in all the windows. So what did I do? I grabbed my camera.

Number Six comes from my residence as well. Same gorgeous morning, just hours later-- and looking in the opposite direction. (I won't say whether those flower are fake...)

Number Five: Again, from St. Mary Maggiore (Major). Ridiculously beautiful-- and so much more so in-person.

Number Four comes from my own personal basillica-- the Basillica of Cosmas e Damiano, which happens to be connected to my house. I had the whole basillica to myself when I took this picture.

Number Three: this picture is so cool if you know how I took it. But, I'm not going to tell you how I did it. Ok, ok, you twisted my arm. Everyone gather 'round....

So there's this church miles and miles away from St. Peter's (whose dome you see in the photo). This church is called St. Anselm. And it has a pretty cool church square. Well, there's a door that leads to a beautiful garden. However, the door is locked and the garden is surrounded by a high concrete wall. So, what do you do? You look in through the keyhole, of course! Only, when you look through the keyhole, the garden becomes like a telescope and suddenly St. Pete's is within view.

Now, don't tell anybody!

Number Two: On the Roman Forum, I took this picture. It's random, it's cloudy, it's perfect for my next PowerPoint presentation....

At last! Number One. Sometimes, you just get lucky... like in this picture: where the sun is setting at just the right angle and the moon is rising with the curve of the Colesseum... and my zoom works just as its supposed to. Yay!

But that almost sounds utilitarian. So, I'm picking two Number Two's.

These are the Vestial Virgins. Their duty: remain virginal, and while they were doing that, keep a flame alive. (Something sounds horribly wrong with this culture). To make matters worse, if they lost their virginity or lost the flame (which sounds somewhat contradictory), they would be beheaded or escorted out of the city and burned or something else equally terrible. Irony here is that, well, their statues are missing something.

This is "The Ang"

After 63 days of rest and relaxation, today I went to school. And it is amazing!-- not just because of the view (as you can see from the picture below), but because my classes are so mind-blowing. In my program at FUS so far, I have gotten a lot of "foundational" things-- doctrine, core theology, etc.-- but out here, I am taking a lot of classes that demand application of my so-far-attained knowledge.

It's like I've been watering a plant and nurturing it for two years, but now I'm starting to see flowers for the first time.

You too could be studying at the Angelicum in Rome.

This is For All the Parents Out There

After classes, what do we do? WE DRINK ABSINTHE!!!

(ok, we really don't... but it's weird to see an illegal drink in the US openly legal here)

Lisa E. agrees: Absinthe is "just plain silly."

This is Funny

If you were visiting the Spanish Steps, what would you do? Would you...

a) stoically look at the beautiful cityscape and ponder the meaning of life?

b) read a verse or two from Aristophanes?

c) bend over the railing and act as though you were throwing up all over the tourists below?


Yeah, I thought you'd pick "c" too.

This is the Standard Reaction to 127 Flavors of Gelatti

I don't know if it was 127 flavors or 126. Actually, it might have been just 120. Or 80. I don't know. Something over 32, that's all I know. (And yes, after $50,000 worth of grad school, THAT is all I know!).

Three words regarding gellati: Best. Food. Ever. Why I haven't seen this in the U.S., I'm not sure. But a hint to future Rome tourists: Pack lots and lots of dry ice with you and bring back some of this gold mine.