Guest Post by: Bridget Staroscik O’Reilly

The streets of Rome are an amazing walk into the past. Yet for a city so steeped in the past Rome is one of the most vibrant and alive places on earth.  Each street is a new discovery. On one side you might see a modern apartment complex and on the other ancient ruins.

One of the best things about Rome is its walkablity. True you have the Metro for the longer treks, but the walks are what you will remember when you’re stuck at your desk in six months watching the rain fall outside. There is a freedom in Rome that comes from the fact that you can walk almost everywhere a visitor would want to go. There’s also the fact that a walk can sometimes take you where you never planned to go.

When you’re driving somewhere, especially in a city like Rome, where traffic can be a bit scary, you have to concentrate on the road. Because of this, you tend to go where you planned with little deviation. Even if you happen to see something you’d like to explore further, it gets pushed to another time.

Driving a car, which gives you so much freedom when traveling in the Italian countryside, becomes excess baggage in a city like Rome.  After all finding a parking space takes time. Who knows if you could even find that thing you glimpsed out the window by the time you manage to stop and park. Plus once you’ve parked, you’re tied to where the car is. First you need make sure everything is locked up tight so nothing gets stolen.

Then once you leave the car behind, you still have to worry about it. Woe to the person who wanders too far a field and loses the car entirely. Try explaining that to the rental agent.  I don’t imagine it would be a fun conversation. As any couple who has misplaced their car, rental or otherwise, can tell you; it is always the other person’s fault and there is no scenario in which you aren’t the other person.

Even if you know exactly where you parked, the car could still be gone. It probably won’t get stolen, but I assume, like most large cities, Rome tows cars that are parked illegally. At the very least I’m sure they ticket them. And yes in case you’re wondering, you are responsible for those parking tickets. They don’t disappear because you crumpled them up and threw them away. The rental company has your credit card number and they are not going to pay your parking tickets to be nice.

Trust me; you don’t need that kind of stress. You’re on vacation, so toss the roadmap aside and wander around Rome on foot. Pretty soon you’ll feel like a local. Maybe some guy will even come up to you outside of the train station looking all frazzled and ask you for directions. It happened to me on my second day of walking around Rome, and I have to tell you, it makes a person feel very cosmopolitan. Now isn’t that better than extra parking ticket charges on your credit card bill when you get home?

Guest Post by: Bridget Staroscik O’Reilly

I’d been wandering through the field of crosses for about fifteen minutes, pausing here and there to read a name and a date. I knew that our soldiers had fought in Italy during World War Two, but for some reason it never occurred to me that they would have been buried here.  In retrospect it made sense, but I still felt a little sad for these soldiers whose families probably were never able to visit their young man’s final resting place.

As I looked out over the sea of marble, something caught my eye and drew me closer.  It was an inscription like on all the other crosses, but this one had no date and no name. Instead it said simply ‘A Soldier of the Second World War Known Only to God.’ I felt the tears well up in my eyes.

Here in this beautiful place, at a time when I’m sure it was not at all beautiful, a young man had lost his life. A mother had lost her son, maybe a sibling had lost their brother. Perhaps a young girl had lost her sweetheart. As I had walked through this World War Two cemetery, almost all of the stones had brought up this same thought. This was different though. All of those people at home; the mom, the dad, the sister, brother and sweetheart… They never knew what had happened to him.

That thought stayed with me long after I left the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery. The hardest thing to do in life, for me anyway, is accepting what it is that I don’t know. That’s what these graves of the unknown soldiers represent to me, the not knowing.

The mothers whose sons just never came home; a sweetheart who held out hope that maybe someday he would return to her…  World War Two may seem like ancient history to many of us but to those who lost someone and those who’s loved ones were MIA the pain remains. These young men paid the ultimate price for the cost of freedom. And yet because their identities were lost in battle, there is no one to visit their graves.

I know Italy is filled with historical sights. A list of places to see and things to do can easily outstrip the time you have to spend there. Still, maybe instead of spending an afternoon wine tasting, you can visit these lost boys. Take a moment to stand by their marker and say a prayer. Maybe it seems like it was all so long ago, and for many of us it was literally before our lifetime. Yet no matter how long ago it was, the life you live is the one you choose to live. Whether you realize it or not, the fact that you have that choice is an incredible gift. A gift that was given to you at least in part, by a young soldier of the second world war, known only to God. Is it really too much to ask that you take some time to say thanks?

More info can be found on the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and memorial at   http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/sr.php

Guest Post by: Bridget Staroscik O’Reilly

When I was a child no more than eight or nine, we visited a cemetery in one of those old silver mining towns in Nevada. While wandering around on my own I saw one gravestone I never forgot. It said in part ‘Where you are now, so once was I, where I am now, you shall be, therefore prepare to follow me’. Those simple words gave me nightmares for weeks.

Similar words to these ‘What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be’  were translated into three different languages and put on a plaque in one of the chapels in the Capuchin Crypt located below Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins or in Italian “Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini” on the Via Veneto in Rome.  Those words are only one of the reasons why it is one of the creepiest places I have ever been.

I was aware of it’s reputation but I had my reasons for visiting, flimsy though they may have been. I had first heard of the chapels when I read about them in a book based in Rome. I knew it wasn’t quite my scene, but it sounded cool and hip in the blurb in my travel guide. Still the main force that propelled me down those stairs was the idea that travel lets you be anybody you want to.

When you are surrounded by people who think they know all there is to know about you, it makes you think you already know all there is to know about yourself. Travel allows you to find something new about yourself. Or, sometimes you just end up with a great story of a time you NEVER want to repeat again. Either way it’s a win/win.

That said, I don’t regret my visit at all. However if you’re going to make a visit yourself you should know this. No matter how many pictures you see or descriptions you read about the crypt itself; No matter how many website articles or reviews like this one you read, nothing can prepare you for that first step across the threshold.

On the day I visited the crypt, Rome was an uncomfortable 90 degrees. Still no matter how warm the day, the crypt is cold and instantly your skin feels clammy. It  is as though one hundred people walked across your grave all at once. The stairway down isn’t long, but you feel as though you have been transported deep underground. Your voice seems to give out on you and when you speak the words sound like those of someone recovering from a bad cold.

Photos are not permitted in the chapels which makes them feel less like a tourist destination that most places in Rome. Although, the day I visited, a disrespectful tourist tried to take some. A fellow visito, told him to stop. “Have some respect,” he said. That interaction, more than anything else, brought it home to me that I was in a tomb and that these bones had belonged to real once living people.

It is a confusing place though in that it does seem incredibly disrespectful in some ways. One being the idea that they would place the bones of their brethren on the walls as decoration.  Even if part of their reason was a need to make some space since they had way more remains than room.

Of course, looking upon their history, space was not the only reason the monks chose to display the bones. As with the Memento Mori on the wall of the chapel, the bones were just a reminder. They were the monks’ way of remembering that life is short and that we must all prepare for what comes next. We should better ourselves and prepare for heaven and that was the message they received from the presence of the bones. The present is fleeting; eternity is forever Although in all honesty, it’s pretty unlikely that this is what you’ll be thinking about when you see the chandelier made entirely of human bones.

This site is one of those places you visit to have visited. Possibly because of the idea behind it and possibly because it makes you uncomfortable. Travel is about seeing great places and having the time of your life, but sometimes it should also be about going beyond your boundaries. Stepping out of your comfort zone and going to a place that makes you think about the past and the future. Even if it also makes you want to rush back to the hostel and take a shower.

For more information on Rome or other destinations through out Italy check out Beachcomber Pete Travel Adventures.

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Guest Post by: Bridget Staroscik O’Reilly

There is a very beautiful and well known church in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome called Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere or Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere. At least I hear it’s very beautiful; see I’ve never been there. I wanted to go there. I even planned to go there. In fact I set out from my hostel with every intention of visiting Santa Maria di Trastevere it just didn’t turn out that way.

The night before my last day in Rome, I got into a discussion with John, a fellow traveler who was living at my hostel while working for a well known travel guide.  John had raved about Santa Maria. According to him it was the most amazing place in the entire city and leaving Rome without seeing Santa Maria would be a vacation crime on par with never having visited Rome at all.  So on my last full day in Rome, not wanting to invite bad travel karma, I set out to see this sight above all sights.

Three hours later I was still looking. I had asked directions of no less than seven people. All of whom were very nice and none of whom spoke English. In all fairness to them I’m pretty sure I got girare a sinistra (turn left) confused with girare a destra (turn right). Needless to say I never got to Santa Maria di Trastevere. I did however find many other amazing things, that were well worth my time.

One turn led me to a cute little tratorria with outside seatting where I had a delious snack and did some great people watching. Another girare a sinistra took me up a grassy path that was calm and quiet and led up hilll.  At the top I had the chance to rest and think over my time in Rome.

I even found a church. This one was called Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, dedicated to St Cecilia, who was 2nd century Roman martyr and is a patron saint of musicians. I will admit, that at the time I did think I had actually found Santa Maria, but even once I realized my mistake, I didn’t care. See, thousands of visitors each year go to Santa Maria in Trastevere, but I bet only a small number of people get the chance to see Santa Cecila in Trastevere. More people should though because it is a beautiful church.

That’s not to say that Santa Maria isn’t worth seeing or that I will never visit it. In fact I hope to find it on my next trip to Rome. The point is that I didn’t let the destination, or my inability to find it, get in the way of the journey. When you’re traveling it is the traveling that matters. Not to go all Zen on you or anything, but sometimes when we allow ourselves to become consumed with what we’re supposed to see or where we’re supposed to go, we completely lose touch with the joy of the journey.

There are places you must see in Rome and one should definitely make time to the Piazza Navona or the Coliseum, but that said, following an agenda that doesn’t allow for surprises takes away from what you can find if you let yourself just go with what life throws at you. Even if that means you girare a sinistra when you were supposed to girare a destra.

For more information on Rome or other destinations through out Italy check out Beachcomber Pete Travel Adventures.

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Guest Post by: Bridget Staroscik O’Reilly

Rome Italy- The Never Ending Allure of the Eternal City

Step Down into Rome’s Past at Basilica di San Clemente

Guest Post by: Bridget Staroscik O’Reilly

One of the reasons building anything underground in Rome is really difficult is because whenever they dig they find something already there. Apparently the ancient Romans were like a kid with a messy room, they didn’t like cleaning things up. When something wasn’t working anymore, they would just fill it in and build on top of the land.

At first thought this seems a little insane, but it is also amazingly lucky. If they had torn everything down and built from the ground up, Rome would probably be much closer to sea level. It also wouldn’t be Rome. If they had been obsessive cleaners we wouldn’t have the chance to pay our 5 Euros and walk down into the past. Walking down into the past is exactly what you can do at The Basilica of San Clemente or Basilica di San Clemente in Italian, which is basically the same thing.

Rome has a lot of churches, so even though it is beautiful the real draw of San Clemente is the excavations beneath. Wandering through the rooms where literally thousands of years ago people walked and worshiped is powerful. Taking in the cool dampness all around you almost feel as if you have entered some sort of dark ancient time. It seems as though you could pass a Mithraic Priestess in the corridor.

As strange as it sounds, no one ever realized that the church had ruins underneath it. In fact, until 1857 When Fr Joseph Mullooly, O.P began the excavations it was commonly believed that the church that stood on the spot was in fact the same one mentioned by St Jerome 392 AD when he wrote ‘a church in Rome preserves the memory of St Clement to this day’. Instead, the church visited by St. Jerome was actually the first level of the present day excavations that are open for the public.

This 4th century church was decided to be unsafe somewhere around 1100 so at that time, rather that fix it, they filled it in and built the new church on top of it. Over time what was beneath was forgotten, just as the 2nd century Mithraic temple along with another structure that was filled in to build the original church had been forgotten. It would seem that the ancient Romans were great believers in progress, literally onward and upward.

Since this was such a common practice, it would seem as though Rome has lots of underground attractions. This is likely true, but the really neat thing about the underground ruins at Basilica di San Clemente is that they are easily accessible for most people. Even someone with mild claustrophobia can enjoy the history and beauty without panic. One piece of advice; If you go right before they close for a two-hour lunch, when you’re worn out from walking all around Rome, don’t fall asleep on the bench in the room with the waterfall running behind the wall because you might wake up in a panic thinking you’ll be locked in.

The excavations at the Basilica di San Clemente are open to visitors Monday to Saturday, 09:0-12:30 & 3:00-6:00 with the last entrance allowed at 12:10 and 5:40 respectively.

Sundays and State Holidays they are open from 12:00-6:00 with no break and the last entrance is at 5:40pm
Admission to the excavations is €5 except for students under 26, with I.D. who pay €3,50

The excavations are fitted with closed circuit security cameras, and personal photography is not allowed anywhere in the excavation.