One Day Left

We're back in Rome after our trips to Assisi and Florence, and we've already seen a lot more of Rome we hadn't seen before. Today we toured a bunch of basilicas with Fr. Collins and learned about the history of the Catholic basilica. He gave very interesting talks on the different aspects of the churches we visited. We saw a lot of historically signficant things, like the doors that are believed to be the oldest carved-wood doors in the world, which were absolutely amazing. We also saw an orange garden believed to be the same plants as those originally planted by St. Francis and St. Dominic. All the churches we visited today were a welcome change from the palace-like churches we've seen thus far. They were much more simplistic, though still filled with beautiful symbolism and architecture.

Then, our small group decided to visit the Coloseum. We withstood a downpour of rain (actually we hid inside a cafe) after taking a guided tour of the coloseum. Then we took a tour of the Roman Forum, which was incredibly interesting, as we learned a lot about the history of ancient Rome from our tour guide, a gentlemen from New Zealand, who had a wonderful sense of humor! It finally dried up for our walk back to the hotel, but outside the internet cafe right now, it is once again pouring rain. We can't complain too much, as the weather for the rest of our trip has been impeccable.

We have a free day tomorrow, so we hope to get a little more shopping done, and see any last minute things before we head back to the States. It's been a fabulous trip and I've learned a ton about the Catholic faith and Italian culture as well.

Ciao!

Donna :-)