Rome/Narni/Santa Severa, Italy

We arrived in Rome the evening of Jan 9 after flying from Santorini to Athens to Rome. We took a train to our hotel. When we were almost to our hotel we stopped by a restaurant and ordered a pizza to go to take back with us. It was wood fired and absolutely delicious. 

Jan 10

We started our day with a fabulous breakfast spread at the hotel with all kinds of pastries, cakes, croissants, fruit, cheeses, cold meat platters, sausage, bacon and juices. And a waiter making espresso drinks. We caught the train to St Peters Basilica. Supposedly Peters tomb is there. We walked around the square and admired the beauty. The grand building and beautiful fountains. We also walked through a door in what was one of the city walls. It was wide and very tall. Wide enough to have a chariot on top like the stories say. There are several different walls left in the city from different time periods. We did some shopping then took the train to the coliseum. It was built to be the most magnificent building in the world. And it is incredible. Our tour did not start for an hour so we popped in at a little restaurant for pasta. The tour was amazing. I can not even put into words the grandness of the place. Or the horrible things that happened there. From martyrs being killed by wild animals while people cheered from the stands. And the gladiators who trained to fight each other. The gladiators life expectancy was around 32 years old. But was not much different than any other men at that time because of all the fighting and wars.  All for the public to watch for free for fun. It is also sad the so much of the ancient ruins have been destroyed by thieves, wars, and people looting them and taking building materials to build other buildings. We walked across to Palestine Hill and the Roman Forum. It was almost exhausting trying to take in the history and the grand ruins there. We did not even have time to walk through the acres of all the ruins. It definitely makes thing in the Bible become more real when you see the things that are like what the Bible talks about. Also I was surprised how much looked like the Bible story pictures, I had just figured someone had made that up about how it had looked back then. After the coliseum we went to the Trevi fountain which was beautiful but completely packed with people. So many tourists trying to get so many selfies gets a bit annoying. We stopped in at a cafe and got pastries and lattes to warm up a bit. It’s been about 55* but cloudy. After awhile we walked to the closest train station and took the train back to our hotel. By now taking the trains seems so much easier than the first day we were in Europe! We walked around our hotel that evening and stopped at different shops along the way. Even a grocery store is interesting in a different country! We stopped at a little restaurant for supper with pasta, brushette and tiramisu. 

Jan 11

A delicious breakfast again at the same hotel. However the friendly man who made us espressos yesterday was not there. The lady that was did not seem as friendly and was more concerned about washing the dishes as soon as you had taken the last bite of food than making coffee. We ended up rushing to get our rental car that we were suppose to pick up at 8. We needed to be at the coliseum to take a catacomb tour at 9:30. It takes awhile to rent a car… for sure in another country. And they take there time with all the paperwork. You have to show your passport here at every hotel per government and most tours etc. In the end we got our car, convinced them to let us leave it there while we took the tour. It was simpler to get there by train than find parking. We rushed to the train, then at the coliseum we had 1 minute to spare. We looked all over at the place we were suppose to meet and couldn’t find anyone. A man in a black van got out and said “catacombs?”. We went with the friendliest family from Australia. We drove to outside the city where we were dropped off at the tour. It was very interesting. It is a myth that the Christians hid down in the catacombs during persecution. However the Christians, and many of them martyrs, were buried there since they did not believe in the Roman practice of cremation. We waked down under ground and saw the many open crypts. They have taken all the remains of the area that is shown to tourists and placed them in a different untoured area as tourists were taking any fragments they could find. The catacombs had also been looted for the jewels, marble, and anything of value long ago. I believe the one we were at was built in 200AD. It had 21km of tunnels with 500,000 people buried there. That is one of the 100 catacombs in Italy. The most interesting part was the story of St. Cecilia. She was beheaded for being a Christian. The story is she was singing as she was killed. We saw her tomb where there is a statue of her laying down. They moved her body I think in the 15th century along with many other martyrs in basilicas inside the city walls as it was not safe for people who were on pilgrimages to come pay there respects to them in the catacombs due to war. They said when they removed her body, they opened the crypt and found her perfectly preserved, just as she had been left. They have no scientific explanation why her body was preserved and none of the rest are. They then made an exact replica statue that is in the catacomb today. Many of the stories told as we walked through the catacombs were of the Christians who died for there faith. It makes you stop and think… and realize that really did happen.

After the tour we went back to the main train station to get our car. Let’s just say not all travel goes perfectly. Our car was not the one we had booked on Expedia. A little two door manual. And I thought it would be fine. It could not be much different than driving the manual 2002 dodge pickup I had grown up on. Tricks, it is a bit different. With being very touchy with shifting. The traffic was a bit bad since road signs and signals do not mean much. But the whole driving a different kind of manual than your used to added a bit of extra stress. In stop and go traffic. So with prayers and a few lurches and almost killing it but not quite we headed toward a little farm in the country about an hour and a half from Rome. But then we came to a toll road. We took the ticket and continued on. Then came the toll payment. We started to go down one but it had a red light. They all looked like they had a red light so I decided to take the one that requires a pass. I figured a rental car would have that. Or they would just send a bill in the mail like they do in KS. But no. There is an arm across the road. And there is none there. We attempt to back up. But we cant get the car in reverse. We have not learned the tricks to this automobile yet.  And a bus pulls up behind us and starts honking. Then I get out to talk to him. He points to a red emergency button which I push. A lady starts talking to me out of the speaker and nothing makes sense that she is saying. Another lady is yelling at me from a booth two lanes down. I cant hear what she is saying. I hop over  several guardrails. She says tell her where your are from. So I run back and tell her over the speaker thing. Then someone thankfully presses the button to let us through and we head off. We google how to put a Lancia Benzia?  Car in reverse and learn you have to pull up on this thing to put in into reverse. Hooray. Maybe someday this will be funny. But definitely the most stressful part of the trip. We wound our way through the country side towards our farm bed and breakfast. The blue mountains towering in the distance… the hills dark green with trees, and the vineyards, olive trees and fruit trees dotting the hills and valleys. We stopped at a little cafe for lunch with amazing pasta and gelato. It was just a couple tables with a few locals inside. There menu had things like stuffed duck, pigeon, and wild boar.  Afterwards we arrived at our farm. The couple was so welcoming and friendly. He is from Italy and she is from Oklahoma! We took a tour of the farm, saw the ducks, chickens, and cocker spaniels they raise. Also the orchards for olives, apples, grapes, hazelnuts, and so much more. He  tries to be as self sufficient as possible on this farm and uses ancient farming practices. He seeds his fields by hand after he works the ground with the tractor. He also has over a thousand lavender bushes planted around. The house is a quaint old stone Italian house. We have a suite on the back with a beautiful porch overlooking the valley. Across the driveway is a massive in ground pool. We walked around and soaked up the sunshine and the view. We walked a mile or two to a church up on the hill and watched the sunset. They had dinner ready for us at 8:00 in the evening. We went upstairs to a tiny kitchen and dining room. Our host, Marcelo, had a fire in the fireplace. And had pork steaks ready to cook. We sat down and he served us toasted by the fire homemade bread with olive oil from trees from their property. He then grilled pork steaks and bacon over the fire. We also had roasted potatoes from there garden. It was all delicious. Also the kitchen is so cute with Italian tiles on the walls. And a copper sink, faucet, and range hood. 

Jan 12

We packed our bags. Our host had a breakfast spread out for us. We got on the road and headed toward Narni, about 10 minutes away. This is where the Chronicles of Narnia are inspired by. We parked just outside the city gate. The city gate is narrow and only fits one care through at a time. And the village was just like a fairy tale. We walked down cobbled streets, winding our way down stone paths between buildings. The old stone houses with there massive fancy wooden doors toward above. The whole town of Narni is perched on the side of a cliff with the valley far below. The views were beautiful. Everything was so quaint. We walked the town for and hour and got coffees. I saw a man by an ambulance while walking around the town. I stopped and talked to him. He did not know English at all, but I got the point across that I was a paramedic too. He was enthused and showed me the ambulance. I did not get an in depth tour, but it was very basic. I saw almost no medical supplies. Just some c collars… maybe the ones in the city have more supplies, but this looked like more of a load your pt and go to the hospital instead of treating your patient immediately. I did not see IV supplies, medications, cardiac monitor, ventilator, or anything like that. We continued our journey over through the hills. We drove by the old Roman aqueducts several times. We stopped once we got to the seaside for a grilled fish lunch and walked along the beach. It was a bit chilly, but the sun shone warmly. We had delicious gelato later on. We continued driving till we got to our hotel for the night. It is in a medieval castle. The yard has many stone buildings and courtyards. The main part of the castle is against the coast and has tall round towers. This is also a museum and just part of it is a hotel. We walked around and took in the history of this place. It is named after 3 martyr brothers who were killed here. Part of the early Christian church cans till be seen in the compound. It has a lot of history and  and was military as well as belonged to wealthy families. Originally it was built with a moat around it. The sunset was gorgeous over the sea. We had pizza in a nearby town for supper.

Jan13

Not much more to write as our journey comes to an end. We had coffee in the morning, returned the rental car, and dropped Steph off at the airport in Rome and I took the train back to Zurich for my flight home the next day. After a few delays I finally go to the airport. Spent night in a capsule hotel at the airport. It was really nice like a fancy hostel. Traveled for another 27 hours and finally got back to Kansas after some delays. It’s good to be home=)