I hate to start off by complaining, But boy do I hate to fly. 9 hour, two connections and I had to pay extra for an aisle seat. The seats were so cramp that even Ann (all 5' 1/2") complained. But we are here. The hotel is lovely, blue sky and the temperature is very nice.
There is not much to report. We spent the day walking around to clear the cobwebs. We walked around the, colosseum, forum, Trajians column and St. Peter's in Chains. Here are some fun Photos of the things we saw.
Now Saint Peter's in Chains church is interesting for two reasons. The chains and the devil in the corner. Devil, you say? Well yes there is a really famous marble statue of Moses by Michelangelo to right of the alter. On closer inspection, you see Moses has horns on his head. Just like the devil. According to wikipedia, the Hebrew word for horns and light is very similar. It states in the bible when Moses came down from Mount Sini he had light coming out from his head. In the movie "The 10 Commandments" they shows Charlton Heston's hair having thick gray streaks in his hair. While struggling with the metaphorical and literal, ancient scholars were getting the horns and lights mixed when translating the bible. So Moses is often depicted with horns on his head. I couldn't find the tail or no cloven feet, but this guy had horns.
The other thing was the chains in front of the alter. These chains were reputed to be the ones that bound St Peter while in prison in Jerusalem. The story goes (wikipedia again) the Christian religion was fairly new but very popular with the people. The Empress Eudoxia (wife of Emperor Valentinian III), who received them as a gift from her mother, Aelia Eudocia, consort of Valentinian II, presented the chains to Pope Leo I. The Aelia Eudocia receivied them as a gift from a local Bishop while on a tour through the holy land. Talk about regifting. According to legend, when Leo, while he compared them to the chains of St. Peter's final imprisonment in the Mamertine Prison in Rome, the two chains miraculously fused together. I assume these chains have been on display since 440 AD.
Next stop was Trajian's column. Now I had did a little reading up on Roman history before we left. To be specific, I listen to a Podcast call "The History of Rome" while commuting to work. each episode is about 1/2 hour long and usually covers one emperor. I heard 1/2 hour, I remember about 2 minutes. It was like listening to some one read cliff note to you while driving. I know this is barely enough time to become an expert on anything. But I did pick up a few fun facts: 1) He is one of the "good" emperors because he expanded the empire and the economy, 2) he beat up anther country call the Dacia twice and 3) a lot of what we know about him is from this column. Next to the column is a display showing the entire column unfurled. There is a lot of amazing detail.
Tomorrow we dive into two museums, churches and ending up on at dinner overlooking the Tiber river.
