Our apartment is just a block down the street from the Basilica of San Clemente so we started our day with mass at there. The mass, of course, was entirely in Italian, but we followed along as best we could. After mass, while looking around the basilica, the priest greeted us, When we told him we didn't speak Italian he immediately switched to English with an unmistakable brogue. It turns out that San Clemente has run by the Irish Dominican Friars since the 17th century, so we talked with him for a few minutes about the basilica and the excavations beneath. We plan to return there to tour the excavations of the older 5th century basilica and the 2nd century pagan temple found below it.
After a typical Roman breakfast consisting of cornetti from a next-door bakery and cappuccino, we spent the rest of the morning waiting for Rebekah's arrival. She got in around noon, and we enjoyed some time catching up with her before heading out for some more sight-seeing.
We then walked down to St. John Lateran, the "mother and head" of the church, and one of the four major basilcas in Rome. It is dedicated to both St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. This was the home of the popes for many centuries, and is the actual cathedral of Rome, and therefore, the Pope's cathedral. The structure is massive and we spent a long time exploring the many side altars and the incredible mosaics, frescos, and statues. The elaborate canopy structure over the high altar is actually a reliquary containing the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul.
Dorene was particularly intrigued by the intricate mosaic floors found in both San Clemente and John Lateran, and took several pictures with the thought of some day making quilts inspired by the floor patterns.
Tomorrow we plan to visit St. Peters for morning mass and hope to see Pope Benedict during his weekly public Angelus.
Enough for tonight -- it's time to see if we can get some sleep with a loud karaoke party in the apartment above hopefully winding down.
Ciao
The tile patterns are very typical of Romanesque church decoration -- they are called "Cosmati" or "Cosmatesque". I have a book on the geometries of them, and they would make great quilts.
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