today we took the bus to Termini and walked to St Paul Within the Walls.  This is an Episcopal church, but it wasn’t open when we got there.  Will try again another day.  From there, we walked to the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore.  It was built on one of the 7 hills of Rome.  We decided on a guided tour.  There were thre different tours.  The first took us under the church to a 14 room home from the Pagan Rome era BC.  This was discovered when they were doing repairs under the side aisles.  The house lasted about 400 years and then fell into ruin as the church was built over it. There were some lovely frescoes and beautiful mosaic floors.  They found the tiles from the roof and they are stamped with the maker’s names so they could date many of them.  Some almost 1500 years old!

After this tour, we went to a big balcony and saw beautiful mosaics on the wall.The top ones were made in the Byzantine era and they used a lot of gold.  Later ones were added to tell the story of a Pope and a rich patrician who had the same dream on the same night that the Virgin Mary came to them and told them to build a church in her name.  Prior to this church, none had been named for Mary.  At each end of the balcony are two Huge angel stsues that were supposed to be on either side of the altar inside the church, but were too heavy. This balcony used to be one where the Popes would come out on to bestow their blessings to the crowd below.  Then we went into a room that had Pope paintings on all four walls as well as a painting of Isabella and Ferdinand.  They gave the church the first gold that was brought back from the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.  That gold helped to build the Basilica.  There are two huge armoires in this room.  There are eclectically vestments in them, as well as a copy of the Letters of St Paul – copied from the original.

We are now hungry, so head for a Chinese restaurant mentioned in a book Andy has.  It tells of the best eating places in Rome.  This  is a big restaurant and it is packed.  We get the same dish we had yesterday…Andy gets crispy duck with herbs and I get duck with orange.  We want to compare.  She said her crispy ducks were equally good.  Mine were also, but different.  Yesterday, the sauce was sweeter with large slices separating the pieces of duck.  Today, the duck was boneless and had bright chunks of blood orange over the slices.  Both very crispy and very good.

Back to the church with a stop at a bakery.  Beautiful pastries and cookies, tarts and biscotti.  I got some to go with my coffee tomorrow.  At the church, we did the third tour of the museum.  It was filled with ornately embroidered vestments and the chalices for the communion wine.  Each in gold or silver and each more ornate than the last.  Candlesticks and monstrances.  These are ornate standing pieces that usually have a holy relic under glass in the center.  A  piece of bone of a saint for instance.  They are in silver or gold and very ornate and often bejeweled.  The museum also had paintings of religous scenes and portraits of many of the ancient popes.  After we finished there, we went into the church itself.  Altho it is huge, it isn’t as ornate as many we have been in.  The dome behind the altar is covered with a massive mosaic that is very ornate and beautiful.

We walked back to Termini, caught our bus and headed for home.  Another fun and busy day.  We are planning to come back to this area on Friday as we saw a couple of museum exhibits we want to see and maybe St Paul’s will be open.