On Monday November 5, we had a walking tour of Laterano area of Rome led by two of the students. They did a great job. We visiting San Clemente, the Sacred Steps, and San Giovanni Basilica. San Clemente, or St. Clement, is a 14th century church built on top of a 5th century church, that was built on top of a pagan temple. It was great to wander down to these lower levels. the church does not allow pictures. which was probably good because the students and I were able to focus on what we were looking at. sometimes the camera gets in the way of truly seeing a place.

After San Clement, we visited the steps. I posted pictures of the steps in my last blog. The mythology of the steps is that they are the original steps Christ climbed to meet Pilate before his execution. The steps are covered with wooden boards because no one is allowed to step on the original stairs. Also, everyone is expected to proceed up the steps on their knees. Another legend is that Martin Luther started climbing the stairs on his knees. Only to stand up and walk the remaining stairs as a protest. I did manage to climb the stairs on my knees in 2010. Not so sure I could do it again. It is very difficult. One is expected to say prayers on each step and not race to the top on your knees. I decided to complete the task again. It was very challenging until the last 6-7 steps. At this point it actually became easier. Not exactly sure where this strength came from. Only one real explanation.

After the steps we visited San Giovanni. the church of the Bishop of Rome, the pope. While the Vatican obviously exists, it is not in the city limits. therefore it is technically not the "Cathedral" of the Bishop of Rome. The church is beyond impressive, and I have posted picture before. The picture posted below are from the walls and floor of the portico, or porch, of the church.

After we left San Giovanni, we went to the site of some of the catacombs. We were early and they had a nice pavilion, and so we held class outside. We needed to get a class in because we left campus earlier than usual to reach the churches and steps before they closed. This is becoming a common occurence on walking tour days.

The catacombs do not allow pictures. And again this is probably a good thing. The catacombs are massive. Four stories, 17 km of aisles. Over 150,000 graves. But more than 150,000 people because many graves held entire families. the exact count of people is unknown. The spaces in the wall are small and you get a real sense of the small stature of these early Romans.

On Sunday November 4, we attended mass at St. Mark's cathedral. While this mass is always in Italian, it is a great experience. Although I couldn't understand most of the homily, it was still somehow more moving than many homilies I have experience. After mass, the students all wanted to have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Venice, near St. Mark's. It was at the Hard Rock, when I realized that I left my small bag in the church. If you followed my blog last time, this was like deja vu all over again. Thankfully Danilo accompanied me and was very helpful in retrieving my bag from the sacristy where the ushers had put it for safe keeping. I did not loose my camera again, YEA!

It was starting to rain. And in Venice in November, this means flooding especially is St. Mark's Square. We were all very happy that we came prepared with boots. We were also happy that we didn't need them till the day we were leaving. What a mess. What great confusion the flooding caused. It seemed to catch many visitors totally unprepared. But not me.

I am glad we were leaving before the water rose above the height of my boots. Another excellent adventure in Venice.

Well, I have to apologize if you are a regular blog reader. I have fallen very far behind in my blogging. I never finished the Venice blog and that was 10 days ago. On Saturday, November 3 we visited the glass factory on murano. Always a fascinating experience. On the way we pass the island cematary of Venice. Below is the master glass blower working on a vase. The other picture is of the cematary as we passed on the ferry.

After visiting Murano, we all went our seperate ways to explore Venice. i headed towards the jewish ghetto area. Below is a picture of a tradition arch in Venice that I passed on my way to the ghetto.

The ghetto itself is very serene. Far from the bustle of St. Mark's square and most tourists. Below are some picture I took inside the ghetto piazza. You might notice synagogues on the top floor in some. nobody wanted to live above a church, so they built the synagogues on the top floor.

While at the ghetto, I visitied the local bakery. Wonderful cakes and cookies. I wanted to buy everybody one of the cookies, but they only had two left. The baker asked if I could return in "dieci minuti", ten minutes. I said sure. And returned for my freshed baked cookies.

Then I decided to wander the opposite side of the grand canal from St. Mark's square. I had never spent any time there before. As always it was great fun, wandering, finding little treasures around each corner. Sometimes taking deadend streets and having to back track. But never really being lost. Below is one of the many clock towers in Venice.

The next picture is a random photo taken in a little piazza I found. I thought it was a great depiction of the Ottoman influence on the architecture of Venice. One notices the shape of the window framing. You can see Turkish, and almost Arabic influences on the design

 Below is just another random view in Venice. Just something I liked.

And after a long day of wandering Venice it was nice and relaxing to sit at a cafe on a busy street and enjoy people watching and an apertivo.

On Friday November 2nd we left campus at 4:15A to travel to the airport for our flight to Venice. We fly to Venice because it is cheaper than the fast train. We landed in Venice about 8:30A. Picked up our luggage, because Easy Jet makes you check in everything larger than most purses. The other interesting aspect of Easy Jet flying is that there are no assigned seats. It is a mad dash from the tram or bus to the plane, and you enter from the front and the rear of the plane. And it is every man for himself to find the seat he/she wants. Once we claim our luggage we wait for Danilo to purchase our travel passes for the weekend. The travel passes allow us to ride the buses to and from the airport and are used on all ferries in Venice. Below is a picture of our hotel.

We didn't know what to expect in Venice because of all the reports of flooding. We were all prepared with our boots. But when we arrived the sun was shining and there was scarcely a puddle. It was obvious that everything was wet, but there was no flooding. I think some of the students were disappointed. I was not. We had a great first day exploring the island of Lido where our hotel was located as well as Venice itself. The crowds were kind of thin because of all the cancellations from the flooding. It was great. Below are some random picture of gondolas and some of the minor canals in Venice.

We wandered over to the Rialto Bridge area. One of the major shopping areas in Venice. This is where we discovered the street art below.

On Thursday, the students, Danilo Mori, and I took a bike ride on Via Appia Antica. This is the oldest road in Rome, and one of the oldest in the world. The same road victorious emperors took as well as the same road Saints Peter and Paul traveled on. We had one student who had never ridden a bicycle before. She got on and took off like she had been doing this all her life. The students always enjoy this experience. The weather was perfect. We all had a great time. Danilo snapped this picture during our break at the half way point. We were going to try a get a picture of me while riding the bike, but everyone was laughing so hard they couldn't hold the camera steady.

On Wednesday October 31st we celebrated Halloween. The students carved pumpkins and trick or treat candy was dispersed to the students. Italians themselves do not celebrate Halloween so there were no little children in the neighborhood with costumes. Also today I went to Rome to visit one of my namesake churches.

I make it a point to try and visit as many churches of San Lorenzo as possible. The picture above is the outside of the Basilica San Lorenzo in Lucina, Rome. This is a very old and quaint church in the middle of a very busy piazza with many cafes with tables outside. Amy and I sat in this very same piazza and took a break from our sightseeing two years ago. so I decided to take a break at the same place. Cannot wait for you to join me, Amy.

I am so sorry, but I have been falling behind on my posts. I think I left off about a week ago. Much has happened since then. Will try and fill in the gaps. Tuesday, one week ago was our first student led tour of the session. The students were assigned piazza del Popolo and piazza de Spagna. Their walking tour started as many of mine do, without one of the students. The student thought we were getting off at another stop and left the subway unbeknownst to any of us. So when we arrived at the designated subway stop we discovered the missing student. After a few anxious moments we contacted the student by phone and explained to him how to find us. He did find us and we proceeded with the walking tour.

I only took a couple of pictures because I have many from my last trip to Italy. One only needs so many pictures of the Spanish steps. But I did take a picture at the fountain in the center of piazza del Popolo.

Some of the students had their picture taken while seated on one of the lions. I decided standing next to the lion was just as good. I really wanted a picture of the "twin" churches at the piazza, but one was being repaired and they hung a billboard advertising on the scaffolding. I didn't want a picture of the billboard.

We proceeded to the Spanish steps and a stop to refill our water bottles at the fountain of the old boat at the foot of the stairs. I sat down for a few minutes and now I am in at least a  million tourist photos! We broke for lunch and I went to Cafe Greco for an espresso. Cafe Greco opened for business in 1760. And had been in continuous operation for 250 years when I first visited in 2010. Of course it was closed for renovations then for the first time ever! So I was excited about finally visiting the cafe and drinking an espresso at the bar. Some of the students played tourist and visited Babington's tea room. An expensive proposition, but they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

While on the tour I was able to snap a picture of the emperor Augustus's tomb in the middle of its own remodeling. How does one remodel a 2000 year tomb"?

I was having difficulty taking the picture through the construction fence, when I noticed one of the students holding the camera above the fence and snapping the picture. I am so old, I still think you need a view finder to take a decent picture!

At the end of the tour we held class on the steps of the Ara Pacis. We had to leave campus early in the morning so we postponed class till the afternoon and had class in Rome. It was a lot of fun.