Very tired.... my feet are killing me.... Today was another day of plenty walking. Set off a bit later coz I was lazing around in my room (since it was Sunday after all).

I signed up for a tour to visit the Catacombs. Not cheap, 40 euros, but after the tour, I think it was quite well spent. Having a guide around to talk about what I am seeing really makes a difference.

The catacombs are a set of underground tunnels where the early Christians who were persecuted were buried. Eerie place. I visited the Catacombs of Saint Domitalla which was the burial place of over 150 000 people. They were buried in an underground structure 4 levels deep! We only got to visit parts of the first two levels. The whole place was like a huge maze underground. Very interesting visit. No pics were allowed, so I only managed to take a pic of the outside which is actually the roof of the underground cathedral.

Next, we visited the Basillica di San Giovanni which is the cathedral of Rome. The guide explained that in order for building to be called a Basillica, it needed to have a 4 things, one of which is are holy relics. The one in this Basillica is supposed to be the skulls of St Peter and St Paul! They also had a piece of wood from the table where Jesus had his Last Supper. This Basillica also had beautiful statues along the nave of the the twelve apostles. This one stood out to me... I think it was supposed to be of Bartholomew... he's supposed to be holding a his own skin coz it's believed that he was skinned alive. Just outside this Basilica was the shrine where the 'holy staircase' is. It's supposed to be the actual marble steps which Jesus climbed up to meet Pontius Pilate. The steps (together with the shred of wood from the last supper table) were brought to Rome by Helen, the mother of Constantine, the first Christian roman emperor.


The last stop on the tour was the Basillica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The relic in this Basilica is a piece of the manger where baby Jesus was laid! It's really quite interesting to see all these holy relics.




After the tour, I decided to go to Capitoline Museum. It's a huge museum and it was totally worth visiting. There were so many sculptures and paintings. I'm not an arty person, but there were two pieces which I really liked. First was the sculpture of The Dying Gaul. I found the sculpture very sad. Next was a painting of the legend of how Rome was founded. The woman in the painting is the mother of Romulus and Remus (the two kids in the painting). The man she is with is a representation of the god of the River Tiber. Click here to read about it more.











All in, another very interesting day. But my feet really hurt. Tomorrow's my last day here, still haven't seen the Pantheon. So much more to see! Hate to admit it, but I'm enjoying Rome!