Touring Rome - The Catacombs & St. Pauls' Basilica

Monday morning started with the alarm being set for 1:00am for the Giants game....... which they won 4-0! After taking a nap we were up and at the BKR group breakfast at one of the Excelsior Hotel’s gathering rooms. This was the first day of Mark’s meetings and I was off on a “companion” tour via bus to Saint Paul’s Basilica, the Catacombs, and a pasta lunch at a lovely venue just outside Rome.

Monday was raining pretty much all day with a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Fortunately for us, the bus dropped us off and picked us up pretty close to each of our destinations. The first stop was Saint Paul’s Basilica which is located outside the walls of Rome. The Basilica was founded by a Roman Emperor over the burial place of Saint Paul. Apparently, in 2009 it was announced that carbon dating of bone fragments in the sarcophagus confirmed a date in the 1st or 2nd century so……… could it really be Paul the Apostle buried there? When we got to the basilica, preparations were being made for some kind of service and the choir was practicing. Being able to listen to them sing was a surprise treat.





Our next stop was the Catacombs. The ones we visited were carved through tufo, a soft volcanic rock, outside the boundaries of the city, because Roman law did not allow burial within city limits. I thought it was quite an appropriate tour for All Saint’s Day. I was disappointed we didn’t see any bones. Apparently, bones and ashes were buried in the catacombs. At the place we visited, we walked through former tomb-lined tunnels, with networks of galleries as many a few layers deep. You could see many smaller cut outs where babies were buried, infant mortality being pretty high. This tour is not for someone who is claustrophobic. One woman in our group walked in and walked right back out. I stayed very close to the guide. The thought of being lost in there made me nervous. There were 11 miles of tunnels! Unfortunately I can't put any pictures up here because no cameras were allowed there.

The last stop on the tour was lunch. We stopped at a lovely place (can’t remember the name) not far from the Catacombs that would be a great venue for a wedding reception. Two different kinds of pasta and a risotto was served after an insalata mista. For dessert, they served sorbets inside the skins/shells of what they were made from. The walnut sorbet was inside a walnut shell, fig sorbet inside the fig skin……….very tasty along with an impressive presentation.  And, yes, of course we had wine with lunch.

Mark and I both had much needed nap time back at the hotel before dinner. Tonight was the BKR Gala Dinner Dance……

Tour buses took us to the venue which was the very ornate Palazzo Brancaccio  Apparently it’s the last Roman Patrician Palace and is on one of the seven hills of Rome. The Palace was an amazingly luxurious place to have our gathering and they had so many staff members. They served dinner with white gloves on……a bit over the top.

First course was a delicious lasagna made with layers of sheets of fresh thin pasta. My Sea Bass was not so good but Mark did enjoy his veal entrée. The desserts were quite a production: with the lights out, the staff dressed in their tuxedos and white gloves (one hand behind their backs) paraded around the dining room with Baked Alaska flambé a glow in large serving dishes.

After a few dances we burned off a minimal amount of calories consumed and we were off on the second bus back to the hotel. Next on the agenda was to set our alarm for another 1AM wake up to watch the GIANTS WIN! After the game, Scott and Joe sent us pictures of the Giants celebration party on Chestnut Street in the Marina.

HOW ABOUT THOSE GIANTS!!!!