Yesterday we all had a lot of homework, so we didnt do too much. I saw the Mausoleum of Augustus...very cool











The Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo basilica. It was soo pretty!












Sorry the picture is blurry...


















The heart of Saint Charles Borromeo (Patron saint of Catechists!!!) is kept here behind the main altar.












Piazza del Popolo! The obelisk is from Egpyt, made for Rameses II.












The two churches facing the piazza, Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto. They seperate the three roads leading to the piazza (that have really good shopping haha)










The fountain of Neptune on the left side of the piazza.













The fountain and steps on the right side that lead up to the Villa Borghese gardens.
















Today I tagged along with Jen, Jennifer and Steph's class again because they were visiting three really important churches. First is Santa Maria Maggiore. It is one of the five Patriarchal basilicas, which the Pope often uses and is one of the oldest churches in rome dating back to the fourth? century!







The inside of the church! So beautiful! The frescoes on the walls all depicted events in the life of Mary. There was actually Euchatristic Adoration going on! Im surprised they even let people in to look around. But it was awesome spending some time with the Sacrament in such a beautiful setting.







The doors that only the Pope can open. Mary and Jesus' hands stick out to be the handles on the door.

















The back of Santa Maria Maggiore. I think its prettier than the front!












The second church we visited was Saint Peter in Chains (San Pietro in Vincoli). From the fifth century.












The inside was beautiful. So open and peaceful.













the church houses the relics of the chains that bound Peter when he was a prisoner in Jerusalem.












It is also the burial place of Pope Julius II (who began the building of St Peter's basilica). The monument in front of the tomb depicts Moses, carved by Michaelangelo. Moses is depicted with horns coming out of his forehead because the Latin words for "horns" and "beams of light" are similar and you cant carve radiance. So the horns are symbolic for the way Moses glowed with the radiance of the Lord.











The last church was Santa Maria della Vittoria. I couldnt really get a picture from the front because the street was narrow, but heres one from the side.










The inside. It was really small, but so ornate and beautiful!












This church is home to the famous statue "Saint Theresa in Ecstasy". My picture turned out really bad, but my friends got better ones. It was designed by Bernini and depicts on of Saint Theresa of Avila's visions.









The church gets its name (Saint Mary of the victory) because of an icon of Mary that apparently helped Catholics win a battle somewhere? The icon is enshrined in this beautiful gold fram over the altar.

After the class we realized we were close to the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini (Saint Mary of the Conception of the Capuchins) which has a crypt decorated entirely with bones from Capuchin monks!

You werent allowed to take pictures inside, so I put up a picture I got from the internet. It was incredible! Really creepy, but at the same time strangely beautiful because the bones made such beautiful symmetrical patterns. It was really neat.

On our way home we stumbled on the corner of the four fountains. It was an intersection of two roads, and on each corner was a really pretty fountain, and looking down each road from the center was a perfectly centered obelisk! It was really neat!