Italy Day 4

Day 4

Thursday, August 4

The catacombs, and the national museum.

Today, was an adventure. :)

We took the metro to a station near where we thought the catacombs would be. When we got off, we asked someone where they were, and they said to keep right.

We kept right. Right up a hill. Right down a hill. Still no signs or even other tourists, so we asked someone. She just happened to be going there so we followed her. After we got on the bus, she said 'mamma mia!' and had us get off. It turns out that we were on the right bus but going the wrong way. The trains, busses and metros are all messed up in August apparently. So we found the correct bus got on and it let us off right at the end of the driveway to one of the catacombs.

It was a beautiful walk up the driveway to a group of buildings. All around us were fields lined by trees, a little haven in the middle of the city.

Mom and I discussed it, and wound up buying a ticket only for me because of my mothers claustrophobia.

So, they called for all the English speakers to follow the tour guide and we were guided into the back, through the gate. There, they had our little group sit on a wall in front of pictures while they explained some of the history and told us about what we would see. These are the highlights:

- At one time 6 popes and 8 bishops were buried here

- This place was started as a free cemetery for Christians

- 40% of the people buried there were children

- There were half a million people buried there

- There are 4 levels but we only went down to level two

- The bottom two levels were sealed off to preserve the bones that still rested there to protect them from being pulverized by conditions

- It was about 14 degrees centigrade down there

- Although it was a safe-haven, no one lived there to escape persecution because it was seen as a sacred place, like base in tag. The only time people were killed there was when they were holding illegal mass there.

- It was passed from proprietor to proprietor until it wound up in the hands of the Catholic Church, who turned it over to these monks (?) or group of people to lead tours and maintain the place.

- It was used from the 1^st century till the 9^th century when the bones of the popes, bishops, and saints that were buried there were removed for safety reasons. Then the catacombs fell into disrepair, only to be ‘discovered’ again in the 19^th century and start being maintained in the early 20^th century.

- There were certain patterns that were repeated on the seals to each niche in the wall where the body was placed that would tell about how this person was led by the good shepherd and is now in heaven with Jesus and God

- The word cemetery means ‘sleeping place’ and was only used to describe where Christians buried their dead because they believed that we will live again. Necropolises were used to describe pagen places of burial.

- The word catacombs means ‘ beside the dip’ or something like that and started to be used because the cemeteries just happened to be near a rock quarry.

- They used to wrap the body in a sheet or shroud, then pour calcium carbonate or something to help the decomposition process along, and fill the niche with vases of good smelling things to help mask the smells.

- People used to want to be buried as close to the popes, or other holy ones, as possible so that their bodies could feel some of the spirit that resided with the bodies of the holy ones.

- There was a girl buried there that was martyred for her faith at 16 or so. Her body apparently never decayed. They had a sculpture of her body where she used to lie. It showed with her right index finger pointed out and her left hand holding up 3 fingers. This was to show her faith even as she was dying. 1 God, 3 parts. She was able to show this on her hands because when she was decapitated, it was not complete. And although she could not talk, she used her hands to show her faith. Her body was moved to her own basilica in Rome.

- They would dig the paths from the top down. They would dig five feet, then burry until they had no more room in the walls, then dig deeper and burry more over and over until they decide to create a new level.

- There are over 20 kilometers of tunnels in this catacomb

After all this explanation, she led us down through a gate with a shed over it. On the walls of the shed were different pieces of marble that had been used to seal each tomb that showed how they would engrave their name and symbols in it. From there, we walked down even more stairs until we were 12 m below the surface and saw the ‘popes’ room’ aptly named for the popes that used to be buried there.

We continued on and saw some 3^rd century frescos. Then walked along and took in the surroundings. Our tour guide had asked us to walk in silence for awhile to feel and hear as others would have long ago. The floor was pounded dirt, almost mud like and the walls felt the same. There were empty places where bodies would lie everywhere. All that kept going through my head were how many shorter (2-3 feet) places there were for the children to rest in. I almost lost it when I came up to 5-6 niches that were sized for babies.

After this walk, we saw one of the little chapels that had been set up for people to come visit and pray at. Our tour guide, who is a teacher in a Scandinavian country, has written our psalms on lines of paper and asked us each to take one to remember our time there. Then we were led up a tremendous amount of stairs and out of the catacomb.

This whole experience was so amazing. After I left, I felt peaceful, and in awe of what I had just seen. When my mother asked if I wanted to visit another catacomb nearby, I declined stating that I wanted to have this experience as my catacomb experience to remember.

After this we went back to the hotel and slept.

Then we set off to find the national museum which was down by the main train station (termini) so we walked down to where we thought it was and couldn’t find it. So we kept walking. And walking. And walking. We finally asked at a café for the directions and they pointed us back the way we had already been. Turns out we had just made a big figure 8 around it! Today was not our day for directions.

By the time we got there, there was only an hour left or so for the place to be open. Luckily we had already scoped out what floors we were most interested in with our guide book. We went straight to the frescos and mosaics. Which were amazing!! They had whole rooms that had their walls frescoed and their floors mosaiced from the bathes of CaraCalla (which we had seen and walked all the way around on our morning adventure)

Then we went down to the basement where they had jewelery that had been found in Rome from the roman era and the coins that they had found. Most were found in votive wells which were used as offerings to the Gods. It was cool there because you could use a magnifying glass and see how intricate the ancient roman coins were. They were quite amazing. Also on this floor was a mummy of a 9 year old and what they had found when they unwrapped him. It also had a video playing about how they are using mitochondrial DNA to find out more about him.

After we were done at the museum, we decided to call it a night. While we were walking back to our hotel, we walked down a side street that we had come to call ‘restaurant ally’ that led to a church and had tons of sidewalk restraints and had some food for dinner. I had a margarita pizza and mom had pasta with shellfish (muscles and the like). I was immediately reminded of Melano, because my mom’s dinner smelled like his breath J