ROME: Monday

Our first day in Rome was packed full of so many blessings! We had breakfast at the hotel. Very simple and similar to what we had at the place in Assisi. Here is a picture of our hotel room (of course there is Tyler trying to find sports on the TV.)

Here's the view from outside our window (we enjoyed sleeping with the window open every night but used ear plugs because of the noise.)

We then went on a 30 minute walk through the center of Rome. We passed the Vatican! It was so amazing to actually be there.

Side note: traffic was crazy. There weren't a ton of cars, gas is sold by the liter and would be about 8 dollars a gallon so people don’t drive a lot, but the streets were so narrow and since everyone walks everywhere, when cars did come down streets (which are usually one way) it was a tight squeeze to get out of their way. But I was impressed at how patient they were! They must be used to all the tourists. Here is the Tiber River we crossed every day.


We went to San Augustino for Mass. The walk was wonderful. Lots of little shops and restaurants.

The Church of San Augustino was one of my favorites!

Mass was very nice, as usual, but then we had about 20 minutes to pray in the church. We were told there was a miraculous statue of the Virgin of Childbirth and Tyler and I prayed morning prayer there.

I was filled with joy and started to cry because we know God has His perfect timing and we are grateful for when God blesses us with children. It was very special to pray there. (There have been lots of stories of people who couldn’t conceive, or had hard pregnancies, and prayed to the Virgin of Childbirth and their prayers were answered and there were pictures and cards next to the statue.)

Then we went to the tomb of St. Monica and had a few minutes to pray there. How special!! Thanks to her intercession and all the prayers of Tyler’s mother, Tyler is back in the Church!

Then we walked around to different sites. We saw the Pantheon.

What an amazing building it was. There used to be marble on the outside but that was stripped off and was used inside the Vatican. How crazy that it used to be a pagan temple and now is a Catholic church, like a few other places here. It was very interesting to walk inside and look up and see the dome (with an actual opening, so when it rains it rains inside) and to walk around to the different altars.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of inside the Pantheon.

Next we went to St. Francis Xavier Church. This is famous for the false dome painted on the ceiling (the ceiling is flat but looks rounded and the way it was painted makes it look like there is a dome, but there isn't! Pretty cool.) Three saints were buried there, saints Robert Bellarmine, Aloysius Gonzaga, and John Berchmans.

We walked a ton but it was fun to see a lot of Rome. We then grabbed a quick sandwich (fresh bread, mozzarella, tomatoes, ham and lettuce) and then went to the edge of St. Peter’s Square for the Scavi Tour. (More on that to come!)

We had a little down time and then went met for dinner. We ate as a group at a restaurant just a few doors down from our hotel. We had pasta in red sauce with mushrooms, roast beef and peas. Then Tyler and I went out for gelato and ate it in front of St. Peter’s Square. We saw the windows where the Pope lives and the lights were on! Here is a picture during the day and his windows are the second and third from the right on the top floor.

A friend told me one of her favorite parts of her visit to Rome was sitting in St. Peter's Square at night eating gelato. I was really excited to do this and Tyler and I enjoyed our first night visit to St. Peter's (we went there a few times at night during our trip.)

Here are some beautiful photos Tyler's dad took.