Papal Basilicas

Our play to visit the catacombs today fell apart, when we arrived (via another bus adventure) at the stroke of noon, only to find the catacombs closed from 12-2.  Midday closure is hardly a novelty in Rome, where the standard work day is morning, followed by a midday lunch and siesta and then an afternoon/early evening reopening.  The advantage to this system is that people can be out and moving around in the cooler parts of the day.  The logic falls apart, however, when one considers that the catacombs are underground--the one place where temperature is not an issue.  But that's Italy.  We decided not to hang around for 2 hours in the stifling heat, so we elected to change the schedule and hop another bus (with another resulting travel adventure, of course) and visit the three papal basilicas of Rome (the fourth being St. Peters, which we will get to later.)  We set out for St. John Lateran, St. Mary Maggiore and St. Paul's Outside the Walls.  These architectural and artistic marvels left the girls open-mouthed and were sound teaching tools for conveying some religious instruction and cultural appreciation to our little sponges.  Meredith in particular seems to take in a deep interest in religion, and could be found throughout the day wandering comfortably through vast spaces exploring side chapels, murals, statuary and art all on her own (nearly giving her parents) a heart attack in the process. At the end of the day, the three girls each expressed a preference for their favorite sites.  Interestingly, they each chose a different space.  Meredith loved St. John Lateran, mostly because of the enormous statues of the apostles, each one of which has a rich martyr's story behind it, which Meredith thoroughly enjoyed.  Cecily loved the rich decoration of St. Mary Major, especially the over-the-top gold ceiling. (although she did opine that it could use even MORE gold and MORE art and MORE statuary.  "Obviously," she sniffed, "it's a poor church.")  Olivia, predictably, enjoyed the clean, neat and regular lines and cavernous space of St. Paul's--a reflection of her organized and orderly personality.  In all, we spent nine hours outside today-- a killer day in mid-90s heat. To prevent heatstroke, we topped ourselves off with water, with granitas (a first but defnitely not a last for the girls), with gelato and with a lunch time beer--at McDonald's, where the beer was definitely the best part of the meal!