Last day: Giolitti, Cecilia, and Bartholomew

Today was our final day in Rome. As I write this a crowd is gathering down the street at the Colosseum for New Year's Eve. The new year will be here by morning with or without our help, and we have to leave first thing in the morning, so I think we'll stay put.

Of course, we had to stop by the Trevi Fountain to throw our coins in, with a hope that we can one day return here again. We also had to have our fairwell gelato, so we stopped by perhaps the best geleteria in Rome, Giolotti. They have a wide selection, and each one is incredibly full of flavor. If you ever get to Rome you have to try this place. Seriously.

Then we headed to Trastevere again to visit the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. As the name suggests, this church houses the body of St. Cecilia, who the 2nd century virgin and martyr who was originally buried in the catacombs which we visited a few days ago. Her body was found to be incorrupt when they moved her remains there in the 9th century, and when the body was exhumed in 1599 it was found to still be incorrupt. An artist who witnessed the later exhumation created a sculpture depicting exactly what it looked like. That sculpture is directly in front of the main altar of the church. We also visited the excavations under the church, where a house dating from the days of the Roman Republic were found. There is a chapel among these excavations directly underneath the main alter where the actual burial crypt lays. St. Cecilia is the patron saint for musicians and is also the saint whom Emily chose for her confirmation, so the whole experience was especially meaningful for her.

On our way back we walked across the bridge to a small island in the middle of the Tiber called Isola Tiberina. We noticed a church on the island with the Latin inscription translated "In this basilica rests the body of St. Bartholomew, Martyr and Apostle". When we went in we found that the base of the main altar was a sarcophogus identified as containing St. Batholomew's body. That alone wsas pretty cool, but what was especially cool was the side altars containing relics of the "Nuova Martyri", the new martyrs of the 20th century. On separate altars were martyrs from the Americas (including Oscar Romero) , Africa, Mexico and Spain, Nazism, Communism, and the Middle East. With so much of church in Rome built on the blood of early martyrs, I have never seen another church recognizing that even today some are called on to give their lives for their faith. Very cool indeed.

My next update will be from back home. Arriverderci Roma!