Ramblings with Randy & Heather

  Day 19 - We're Home! We arrived home on Friday, May 9th. Part of the joy of traveling is returning home. Thanks for joining us on our adventures. If you enjoyed following along be forewarned that Randy is well into planning our next trip. In September we are headed back to Ireland. Both of our sisters retired this year and they thought it would be fun to see Ireland. So we will hit some of the highlights from our first trip as well as add some new sights. Instead of Etruscan ruins we may be exploring Viking sites...if Randy has his way. So stay tuned. And special thanks to our Travel Buddies, Brad & Cindy, for making our Italy adventure so much fun. We love to learn and laugh with others and you two do both well!

Day 18 - Last Day In Rome and Italy Well, our journey is about to end. But we have one more sight seeing day. A leisurely walk past some of Rome’s other famous spots that we didn’t get to yesterday. Just a couple blocks from our hotel was the Basilica of Saint Sabina. She was a 2nd century noble woman who was martyred. The Basilica was built in honor of her in 430 AD. The building has been renovated over the years, but the original 5th century doors are still visible. Quite amazing. We then out walked to the Mamertine Prison, a famous Roman era prison located just outside the Forum. Although there is limited historical evidence, tradition says that both Paul and Peter were held there. Like many early AD sites, that tradition caused a church to be built over the site, which ultimately preserved the prison cells. We were able to descend down below the church to the excavated jail cells. Again, even if this tradition isn't true, we know that in general Christians were imprisoned in si...

Day 17 (number change) - Exploring Rome They say Rome wasn't built in a day.  Rome cannot be toured in a day either, but we tried! Thankfully we have all day  tomorrow to see several more things we missed today. Even then there is plenty left to come back to again some  day.  After a quick breakfast, we were up and out the door headed to St. Peter's In Chains. Not to be confused with St. Peter's Basilica which is part of the Vatican. "In Chains" is a church near the Coliseum. The church is known for 2 things. The first is the chains that allegedly held St. Peter while he was in Rome are located in the church. There is some debate about whether Peter was ever in Rome, but putting that aside, it still makes you consider the plight of the apostles in the first century. Many were imprisoned and martyred. The second item the church is known for is the Michelangelo statue of Moses. It is quite unique due to the horns on Moses' head. Apparently, an early Latin transl...