St. Luke the Evangelist 

Rome Airport

Rome Airport, also named Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (IATA: FCO; ICAO: LIRF), is the major international airport of the city of Rome and the largest airport of Italy.

It is located in Fiumicino, a town 35 km southwest from Rome city center.  FCO Airport is named after Leonardo da Vinci, who in 1480 designed the first proto helicopter.

Ergife Hotel

Located in the Suburbia IX Aurelio neighborhood of Rome, 3.2km or about 2 miles from St. Peter’s Basilica and 6km or about 4 miles from Trevi Fountain.

And our lunch…

Breakfasts and dinners were provided by the hotel and lunches were in the city. Meals usually begin with a course of pasta, followed by a course of meat and vegetables, and complete with dessert. It was needed with all our walking!

Walking the Streets of Rome

Walking the streets of Rome, one quickly realizes that Rome is composed of seven hills. It seems that around every corner, there are more steps, inclines, and declines to traverse. Many of the roads are cobblestone which are beautiful, but slippery when wet! Beware – what appears to be a pedestrian walkway is not. The narrow, cobblestone roads are for vehicles and people to pass through. Unlike in the US, cars have the right of way, not pedestrians so stay alert! And you never know what will be around the next bend – it may be another open piazza adorned by a central fountain, or an ancient historical building, or another magnificent church. It is a feast for the eyes – and the stomach. We tried as many gelato and coffee shops as we could and each was as delicious as the next.

Do you remember the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding? I swear this was our tour guide! The tone of his voice and knowledge of the origins of the roman root words took me right back to the movie – and I had just watched the third movie which took place in Greece, with cobblestone streets, plazas, and charm like Rome. It was great!
 

San Pietro in Vincoli

From the Catholic Travel Guide and Rome.us websites

San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) was built during the fifth century to house the relic of Saint Peter’s chains when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem. The church is also renowned because it houses Michelangelo’s statue of Moses.
The Apostle Peter was arrested and jailed in Jerusalem for preaching about Jesus.  He was placed under guard and shackled with an iron chain.  But the night before his trial, St. Peter was said to have been released from the chain by an angel and led out of the prison right under the nose of the guards.  The chains that had bound Saint Peter were given to Pope Leo by Empress Eudoxia (wife of Emperor Valentinian III).

According to tradition, when the pope held them next to the chains from Peter’s first imprisonment in the Mamertine Prison in Rome, the two chains miraculously fused together.  San Pietro in Vincoli was dedicated in 442 to house the two chains that bound Saint Peter.  They remain fused together and are kept in a reliquary under the main altar in the basilica.

The Basilica is different from any other church built during the same period thanks to its simplicity and scarce decoration.  It also contains the mausoleum of Pope Julius II, made up by Michelangelo’s striking statue of Moses, designed between 1505 and 1515. 

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Santa Maria Aracoeli

Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven. It is located on the highest summit of Capitoline Hill and you need to ascent 124 steep marble steps to reach it. The steps were built to commemorate the end of the Black Death in Rome. It houses a wooden figure of the child Jesus that is said to be miraculous, resurrecting the dead. Unfortunately, the figure was stolen in 1994 and was never found. We didn’t have time to go inside, and few wanted to attempt the steps…

It was owned by the Benedictines and now the Franciscans. In 1571, they celebrated the victory of the Battle of Lepanto here.

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Santa Maria Maggiore

Taken from turismoroma.it, DenverCatholic.org, rome.us

Built on the top of the highest hill in Rome, the Esquiline Hill, it is the oldest standing Christian Church in Rome and the largest church dedicated to Our Lady. (There are 26 others)

St. Mary Major, Our Lady of Snows -
According to the legend, Giovanni, a rich Roman patrician, childless, decided with his wife to dedicate a church to the Virgin Mary. On an August night in 352, Our Lady appeared to them and informed them that a miracle would show the site where to build the church. Pope Liberius had the same dream, and the following day he went to the Esquiline: he found the hill covered with snow. The pope himself traced the perimeter of the building and the church was financed by the couple. That is why St. Mary Major is often called Our Lady of the Snows.

Even today, like every year, the miracle of snow is commemorated on August 5 with a special celebration: on this occasion white petals are released into the air from the top of the basilica, creating a truly mesmerizing and must-see effect.
Holy Doors – there are four in Rome and they are only opened as an important part of a Jubilee Year. When the Holy Door is opened, the Holy Father strikes it three times with a silver hammer, each strike representing a Scriptural “strike” such as Moses striking the rock and the Roman soldier striking Christ in the side with a spear. With these strikes, grace flowed forth, usually in the form of water, and in keeping with the symbology, the striking of the door symbolizes the release of grace, flowing to the faithful.

Making a pilgrimage to the Holy Door evokes the passage in the Gospel of John when Christ said, “I am the door,” (Jn 10:9). Passing through the Holy Door is symbolic of leaving this world and entering into God’s presence, and also of removing obstacles, clearing a passage to the Lord.

Crypt of the Nativity -
Under the high altar of the basilica is the Crypt of the Nativity or Bethlehem Crypt, with a crystal reliquary designed by Giuseppe Valadier, which is said to contain wood from the Holy Crib of the nativity of Jesus Christ. It was brought to Rome by St. Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine. She was a staunch Christian who influenced Constantine to accept Christianity. He declared Christianity as the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire, causing the decline of Christian persecutions and the growth of the Church.

Also, here is the burial place of Saint Jerome, the 4th-century Doctor of the Church who is responsible for translating the Bible into the Latin language (the Vulgate).

Beneath this altar is the Oratory or Chapel of the Nativity, on whose altar, Saint Ignatius of Loyola celebrated his first Mass as a priest on 25 December 1538.

Borghese Chapel of the Basilica, Salus Populi Romani -
The column in the Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore celebrates the famous icon of the Virgin Mary, presently revered within the Borghese Chapel of the Basilica. It is known as Salus Populi Romani, or Health of the Roman People, or Salvation of the Roman People, due to a miracle in which the icon reportedly helped keep the plague from the city. The icon is at least a thousand years old and, according to tradition was painted from life by St Luke the Evangelist using the wooden table of the Holy Family in Nazareth.

The Sistine Chapel –
There is a version of the Sistine Chapel at Santa Maria Maggiore. (I wandered off and didn’t listen to that part of the tour!)

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San Giovanni Laterano

Taken from rome.us

Approaching San Giovanni in Laterano, we notice a larger-than-life statue of St. Francis of Assisi praying for the “Mother of all Churches”. Upon the outside walls, we read “Omnium urbis et orbis Ecclesiarum Mater et Caput which means “the Mother of all the Churches of Rome and of the world”. San Giovanni in Laterano holds immense significance for Christians as it is the oldest and highest-ranking of the four papal basilicas. It has witnessed key historical events, including papal enthronements until 1870. Today, it serves as the Pope's official ecclesiastical seat, where he celebrates Holy Thursday Mass as the Bishop of Rome, further underlining the basilica's vital role in the Catholic faith.

St. John Lateran is not a person but rather the dual dedication of the basilica to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. This naming honors both the beginning of Christianity through St. John the Baptist's baptism of Jesus and the continuation of faith through St. John the Evangelist's writings in the Book of Revelation.

The founder of the basilica is the Roman emperor Flavius Valerio Constantine (Flavio Valerio Costantino). Before the decisive battle with Maxentius, Constantine the Great saw in the sky Christma – a monogram of the name of Christ, which foreshadowed his victory. He then had this church constructed calling it the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The outside is flanked by saints and doctors of the Church, where a 7-meter-high statue of Christ stands out against the sky triumphantly showing the Cross of the Redemption. It is a mixture of Romanesque, classicism, and Baroque style. The magnificent bronze doors were taken from the Roman Forum and are still used there today.

Inside, are valuable mosaics from the times of Emperor Constantine preserved in the church’s apse. We see early Christian martyrs with scrolls in their hands and the face of Jesus towering over them created in a Byzantine manner. In the 13th century, Giacomo Torriti added the Order of the Franciscans symbols to the ancient mosaics.

The nave of the temple is full of rich decoration. Mosaic floors are dotted with contrasting circles and squares, characteristic of the Cosmatheco style. Columns of the nave are lined with Numidian marble.

The baptistery of the basilica, believed to be the oldest in the Christian West, dates back to the 4th century. It is octagonal in shape, symbolizing the number eight, which represents resurrection and new life in the Christian tradition.

We were blessed to attend Mass on the Holy Day for All Souls. Fr. Diego concelebrated and we were in the front few pews. It is an honor to celebrate Mass here for it is very rare for priests to be able to do so. Fr. Diego also concelebrated here a week later during the US Hispanic Priests Conference.

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Assisi

St. Bonaventure – Chapel where we celebrated Sunday Mass on November 5th. St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Feast day-July 15)

St. Bonaventure, known as "the seraphic doctor," was born at Bagnoregio, in the Lazio region of central Italy, in 1221. He received the name of Bonaventure in consequence of an exclamation of St. Francis of Assisi, when, in response to the pleading of the child's mother, the saint prayed for John's recovery from a dangerous illness, and, foreseeing the future greatness of the little John, cried out "O Buona ventura"-O good fortune!

At the age of twenty-two St. Bonaventure entered the Franciscan Order. Having made his vows, he was sent to Paris to complete his studies under the celebrated doctor Alexander of Hales, an Englishman and a Franciscan. After the latter's death he continued his course under his successor, John of Rochelle. In Paris he became the intimate friend of the great St. Thomas Aquinas. He received the degree of Doctor, together with St. Thomas Aquinas, ceding to his friend against the latter's inclination, the honor of having it first conferred upon him. Like St. Thomas Aquinas, he enjoyed the friendship of the holy King, St. Louis.

At the age of thirty-five he was chosen General of his Order and restored a perfect calm where peace had been disturbed by internal dissensions. He did much for his Order and composed The Life of St. Francis. He also assisted at the translation of the relics of St. Anthony of Padua. He was nominated Archbishop of York by Pope Clement IV, but he begged not to be forced to accept that dignity. Gregory X obliged him to take upon himself a greater one, that of Cardinal and Bishop of Albano, one of the six suffragan Sees of Rome. Before his death he abdicated his office of General of the Franciscan Order. He died while he was assisting at the Second Council of Lyons, on July 15, 1274.
Taken from catholic.org

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Blessed Carlo Acutis

Carlo was born in London on May 3, 1991, to Italian parents who moved the family to Milan when he was 3 months old. It was there that Carlo grew up, attending local schools and then a Jesuit high school. Devoted to Our Lady from a young age, Carlo made the effort to recite the Rosary daily and, after his first Communion at age 7, also strove to receive the Eucharist daily and to attend confession weekly.

The Character of Carlos
Carlo was exceptionally compassionate and mature even as a child. When bullies at school picked on classmates with disabilities, it was Carlo who stepped up to defend them. He also worried for friends who were suffering through their parents’ divorces, and made a point of inviting them to his home and offering his support.

His mother told CNS, “Carlo led a normal life: He went to school, he played sports, he played video games, although usually just one hour a week because he understood that one could be enslaved by video games.”

If there is to be any patron saint for video gamers, it should be Carlo Acutis once he is officially canonized. He is the perfect saint for the average child or teenager in today’s culture and is a wonderful example of ordinary holiness.

Carlo’s mother was converted by her own son:  “Carlo was a very devout soul, even when he was very young. He loved to go to church, to pray, and to learn more about his faith. I was far from the church; I grew up in a secular family, as millions of people do, I suppose. So, having this son who insistently asked me questions about the faith forced me to reflect. That was the reason why I drew closer to the Church” and to the sacraments, she explains.

Carlo’s school principal witnessed his holiness:  I would say that he was a quiet child by nature, living in the context of a peaceful family. As time passed (also because the surname was recurrent in the media), I learned that his father, Andrea Acutis, was the manager of a large private company and that the family’s standard of living was quite high. But none of this stood out in Carlo or his parents.

Today I often see spoiled and demanding children, who are capricious with their parents, selfish with their classmates and perhaps spoiled by excessive wellbeing. There was never any sign of this in Carlo: he was a child who integrated harmoniously in the classroom, docile, with whom the teacher was happy. His parents too were very polite and unpretentious, reserved people.

Created a website to catalogue Eucharistic miracles:  One of his most significant computer ventures was cataloguing all the Eucharistic miracles of the world. He started the project when he was 11 years old and wrote at the time, “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of Heaven.” He then asked his parents to start taking him to all the places of the Eucharistic miracles, and two and half years later the project was completed.

Acutis researched over “136 Eucharistic miracles that occurred over the centuries in different countries around the world and have been acknowledged by the Church” and collected them into a virtual museum. Besides creating a website to house this virtual museum, he helped create panel presentations that have traveled around the world.

The miracles of Carlo Acutis
Healing of a gravely ill boy in Brazil.  The Medical Council of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes has expressed a positive opinion on an alleged miracle attributed to the intercession of young Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia at age 15 in 2006. He was declared venerable in 2018.

Body was found intact after burial:  The vice postulator, Father Marcelo Tenorio, shared the news on social media. He revealed that he’d seen the pictures but that he couldn’t share them.

The priest said that the news had been communicated to him by Carlo’s mother: “Dear ones, I received today from the mother of Carlo Acutis the wonderful news that the body of the venerable youth, who died giving his life for Pope Benedict XVI, is INTACT.”

The postulator of the cause, Nicola Gori, asked that the medical exams be awaited before something definitive can be said regarding the state of the body of the young Carlo.

“Any judgment on the state of the body’s preservation is premature as the necessary examinations by medical personnel are currently underway,” he said.

Bl. Carlo Acutis: His life, his miracles and his legacy (aleteia.org)

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San Giovanni Rotundo

Great info can be found here: The Church and the Convent of Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo (Italy) (padrepiodapietrelcina.com)

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Santa Maria Della Scala

The church Santa Maria della Scala is located on the square of the same name. It was built under the patronage of Pope Clement VIII between 1593 and 1610 to house a miraculous icon of the Madonna. Tradition holds that a midwife with a dying child in her arms prayed under the stairs of a house where the image of the Madonna was present, and the child was immediately revived.[2] Consecrated to Mary, mother of Jesus, the church enshrines that icon in the north transept, alongside a baroque statue of St John of the Cross. The church was built on the site of a house once bequeathed to a Casa Pia founded by Pope Pius IV in 1563 for reformed prostitutes. In 1597, the church was granted to the Discalced Carmelites.[3]

Trevi Fountain

From Travel and Leisure website:

The Trevi Fountain is perhaps one of Rome's most iconic structures. It began as the endpoint of an aqueduct made in 17 BC. Called the Aqua Virgo; this aqueduct was a vital water source for Rome.
 The original architect of the Trevi Fountain, Nicola Salvi, was commissioned by Pope Clement XII and worked on the fountain from 1732-1751 - when he died. Unfortunately, the fountain was not completed yet and it was finished by Pietro Bracci. Interestingly, the fountain is made of the same material as the Colosseum (travertine stone).

One would expect the god at the centerpiece of the Trevi Fountain to be Neptune, the god of freshwater in the Roman religion. However, the Trevi Fountain god turns out to be the Greek sea god Oceanus; you can tell by the way he's flanked by seahorses and mermen. The statues represent the different characteristics of rivers and seas.

The movie "Three Coins in the Fountain" established the tradition of tossing spare change into the Trevi Fountain. Legend has it that one coin thrown with the right hand over the left shoulder will guarantee you a safe return to Rome in the future, while a second coin will have your return met with romance. A third guarantees a Roman wedding.

Wishes aside, since 2006, a Roman Catholic charity called Caritas has collected the roughly €3,000 a day thrown into the fountain and used it to provide food and social programs worldwide.
The fountain pumps 56,000 gallons of water a day (an average American uses 82 gal/day) which is all recycled.

Take a swim in the Trevi? You will be fined 450 Euro.

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Colosseum

The Roman Empire was growing and to help unify the citizens, Emperor Vespasian wanted people to come together for entertainment. At the new colosseum they could watch gladiators, wild animals, and more while enjoying free food and drink. It was a huge hit! Tens of thousands of spectators would come to watch.

The colosseum is one of the spectacular monuments in the modern world, an architecture and engineering marvel. It was built in 72 A.D on top of a marshy area that Emperor Nero had used as a fishpond. It is believed that 100,000 Hebrew slaves from Jerusalem were used to construct this Favian Amphitheater. They used concrete, bricks, and travertine stone reinforced by steel rods to construct his massive structure. The travertine limestone was mined in a quarry in nearby Trivoli - over 100,000 tons of it were carried on wagons by the slaves.

Many think this is where Christians were persecuted and killed, but this is not true. Those events took place at other amphitheaters, circuses, or the emperor’s gardens. 

What happened to the Colosseum - Why did it fall apart? During the early 300s AD, Christianity became the official religion of the empire, so churches started popping up all over the city of Rome.  By 476 AD, the Western Roman Empire in Rome was no longer, and the colosseum was falling in disarray because the activities in the amphitheaters dwindled. Thus, the colosseum was used as a quarry, with the metal rods taken out and the travertine stone used to construct new buildings all over Rome, many of which were churches. There are over 2000 churches in the city of Rome!
On the way to the Roman Forum, Linda and Roseann were tired. They met up with Helen and Dennis to take a break, but not before I lost Roseann on the busy street!

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The Roman Forum

Taken from worldhistory.org and rome.us

The Roman of ancient Rome was the bustling religious, administrative, legal, and commercial heart of the city from the 7th century BC onwards. During the Imperial Period, it was made increasingly grandiose and ceremonial in function. Its stone and marble displayed all the power and glory of the Roman Empire. There were temples of deified emperors, dedicatory columns, and massive triumphal arches used to celebrate military victories. After being wrecked by earthquake, weathering, and pollution, as well as centuries of architects robbing it of its stones and columns, the Forum Romanum still remains one of the most impressive sites in Rome. It offers a unique window into the once-great glorious world that was Rome.
It is located between the Capitoline and Palatine Hills of Rome. There is much history connected to this area linking ancient times to Mussolini.

One piece of interest is the great arch in the picture, called the Triumphal Arch of Constantine. Erected in 315 AD, it commemorates Roman Emperor Constantine’s I great victory over the Roman tyrant Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge in Rome. Can you picture Emperor Constantine on horseback surrounded by his army entering the city through this arch? With the citizens of Rome cheering him on?

The Arch is located along the Via Triumphalis, between the Colosseum, the Temple of Venus, and the Roma and Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient arch that has survived to this day at 21 meters (69ft) high and 25 meters (82 ft) wide.
After the Forum, we passed Capitoline Hill. Here we saw remnants of ground level ruins. Looking down, there was layer upon layer of the city – ancient, medieval, Renaissance palazzi (urban building built as a grand residence). The Capitoline Hill is one of the seven hills of Rome.

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Victor Emmanuel II Monument

Around the corner from Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven appeared the Victor Emmanuel II Monument. This monument was built between 1885 and 1935 to honor the first king to unify Italy. It is considered one of the national symbols of Italy. The horse in the center is so large that twenty people could sit down and eat dinner inside of it, and they did!