Saint Mary Major

Hi Kiddos!
We're crawling into bed at 1 am tonight after a very, very full day. I'll post pics and give a brief description but the bulk of the stories will have to wait til I have more time.
We started off the day on the metro to the colliseum. Since it was really crowded and we wanted to save our legs for walking with Fr Greg this evening (he promised to give us a spectacular night tour after vespers and dinner). So we took a tour bus to get a really basic feel of the city. It was actually quite good. It was supposed to last 1 hour and 40 minutes, but about an hour into it, we were passing St Mary Major and I said to dad "let's get off now and go in" and he did, along with Peter and Abbie.

Abbie is still a baby Catholic so watching her walk around this church made me SOOO happy! Of course all of us were blown away, but she loves art work so much and was so overwhelmed by the beauty that it a really precious moment for us all. When we left, she said it's the most beautiful church she's ever seen. Of course I agree. My personal favorite part was down in the crypt part of the church where there was this little museum. I had been thinking earlier on the bus how I wish there was some relic of Mary, but because of the Assumption there isnt. Inside the museum is a lock of her hair. I immediately burst into tears. Day-made. It didn't matter if I saw anything else at all. Of course, we did, but you get my point. We also stopped at the Holy Stairs and St John Lateran before heading home for a break.

We met up with Fr Greg for Vespers at the monastery.  It was so powerful to listen to all the men chanting in Latin. Afterwards, we headed to dinner and all of us ordered the carbonara. It was the best we ever had, hands down.

Fr Greg took us for a walking tour of the city so we could see all the great places when they weren't crowded and he could give us details. It was so much fun I feel at a loss for words. It's so hard to believe there are so many different historically important places laced throughout one city. One minute you're looking at a cool McDonald's that's nothing like the states, the next minute you're looking at 1st century ruins, and next to it is a place for gelatto, and there's the Pantheon too, and around this corner are the bodies of two apostles, and the Trevi Fountain.Your mind just can't process it all so fast. Hopefully the pics will help!