The view from our room.

The girls left early for a church extravaganza, Ian & I decided to take on the 170 odd spanish steps.

The view from the church was great.

The cool interior gave us a chance to relax & look at the beautiful decoration.

Then on to " the peoples plaza" via some beautiful fountains & statues.

Apparently Rome has more egyptian monolyths than Egypt !

Moses & the bullrushes, depicted in this beautiful  marble fountain.

Views across the city.

We meet the ladies for our Catacombs tour. A bus ferries us around the 3 locations.

First stop The catacombs of Domitilla, as with all of todays tours, no photos permitted. We have added some google pics to help.
The many sets of catacombs are set outside the city walls, probably for public health reasons. The warren if corridors in this one would stretch 6 miles if laid out flat and are on 3 levels.
The public are only allowed in a small section of the upper area, sadly all but one of the graves (many being infant sized) have long since been removed & the decorated marble fronts looted.
The catacomb is run by German monks who continue the exploration & renovation.

Our Guide Jon, an american who has been in Rome for 8 years, seemed to know his stuff.

Next stop the church of St Clement.
The church at present is undergoing some work , but we could still see the progressive changes and additions to the structure, which is largely medievel.
Just one storey down is another level of 2nd century building, housing the fresco picture we have added, this area was flooded & rediscovered by an irish priest Fr Mulooley who's order operated the church in the 1930's.
Yet another level down are 1st century Roman dwellings beautifully preserved, along with a pagan chapel.

Last stop, the bones at the Cappucin Crypt. 6 chambers filled with ornate decoration made from the bones of 3700 cappucin monks.

Back to our hotel for a shower & McDonalds for tea.

Ian & I join The Dark Rome tour. Our guide an anonymous Italian who learned his english in Aberdeen..imagine that accent.

We visited the square who's name translates to field of flowers, where 400 yrs ago, Gallileos mate Bruno was burned alive for disputing that earth might not be the centre of our universe.
The Vatican kindly apologised for this in yr 2000, bit late.

The pair of ancient bathtubs used as ornamentation in fountains commissioned by a very unpopular pope.

A street in Rome where the popes prison still stands, now luxury appartments..our guide listed many sorry tales leading to the street getting a bad reputation, locals believed it was haunted at various points in history, leading to a series of holy pictures to be put on the outside walls, as protection.

Last stop one of the gates to the vatican, where scaffolds were routinely erected to publicly chop off the heads of innocents and wrong doers alike.

Just time for a refreshing beer before turning in for the night, oh no wait someone has to do the blog while the other one snores!

Good job you are worth it dear reader xxx