Day 5 - Catacombs, Crypts and Chariot Racing

The night went as the last post described - restless. The girls were up multiple times through the night with lights on and laughing and colouring in in the middle of the night. You would think they would be tired!

In the morning Ali told Auke that we may as well cancel the tour because by this stage she could barely move. We didn’t even bother checking the temperature because we knew it would be terrible. She had nurofen and Panadol going around the clock to try bring the fever down but nothing was working. Thankfully Titus didn’t seem to have too bad a temperature anymore, just a cough.

Auke told Ali if she didn’t go she would regret it but Ali didn’t think she could physically make her tour due to feeling faint, dizzy and weak. However, with much coaxing and many drugs she dragged herself out of bed and they all left to catch the metro to a stop which was meant to be right next to the meeting place at the Trastevere Fountain.

We all piled onto the metro and before we knew it, the metro had gone past the stop we needed to hop off. We quickly hopped off and tried to find out how to walk back to where we needed to go. Unfortunately we were nowhere even close and our phones were saying go right, go left, go right and were confusing us even more.

By this stage, Ali’s tour was due to start in 15 minutes and we weren’t even close to being there. Ali tried desperately to ring the given number on the tour booking but no one picked up. We tried to hail every taxi that went past but unfortunately no one stopped. At this stage, Ali had no choice but to try to run to her tour with a raging fever and a broken google maps. She ran as fast as she could, hoping she would faint along the way. We think some Italians must have thought she had lost her mind as they kept looking very concerned and yelling stuff out.

Eventually 10 minutes after the tour had already started Ali found her way to the fountain where thankfully two people were waiting. They said they had been calling her but her phone had never rung. The tour group were just over the other side of the fountain about to leave for the first part of the tour which was a walk to the Capuchin Crypts. With relief, Ali joined the tour. She’s not sure how she even stayed upright, but she walked with the rest of the group to the crypts.

The crypts have the bones of over 4000 friars spread over six rooms. These bones were arranged by bone type, and then a picture was made. The crypts have the inscription ‘What you are now, we once were. What we are now, you shall be”. It feels very eerie in there, although Ali was focusing too much on trying to stay upright to be able to pay as much attention as she would have liked. She tried to snap a few pictures to study later, although this was forbidden.

As she went to leave the building with the rest of the tour group, the gift shop lady started yelling at Ali to delete the video. Ali kept explaining there was no video but she yelled she saw a video. She said also to delete photos. Ali had to delete all the photos in front of her, but still the lady wouldn’t let her leave. She insisted there was a video. After about five minutes of fluffing around finally Ali was allowed to leave but in the mean time the tour group had gone. Thankfully some American guy had stayed behind and showed Ali where they all went. We then all hopped into a minivan and off we went to the catacombs.

We visited the Catacombs of Santa Domittila. The tour guide said there was a couple who were very wealthy. They became Christians and because of this the husband was killed. The lady who was sent away to an island donated her land for Christians to bury their dead, but as they ran out of room they started to bury them underground.

We all walked downstairs into a chapel, and inside the chapel there is a narrow door. Through there you walk down to the catacombs. The catacombs (or at least the part they show the public), are not as narrow as you would expect. There are lots of little graves carved out everywhere, and they are all very small. Apparently the average Roman man was only 160cms tall (shorter than Ali!) and they were all quite small. Sadly, there were lots of little graves for babies and children.

These particular catacombs are the only ones in Rome that have bones in the public part - although there was only one or two. We had to walk on the second story as the first story had caved in. The whole time we were walking they were shaking, which is apparently every time a car drives overhead.

One thing you wouldn’t expect to see in the catacombs is graffiti from the original archeologists from hundreds of years ago - but that’s exactly what there is! She told us one man in particular - Marco, likes to sign his name everywhere. Also, she said graffiti is nothing new - they even found graffiti in Pompeii.

After we safely made it out of the catacombs, we hoped back in the minibus, and drove to the Ancient Appia way - a road that is older than Jesus. It was built in 312 BC! It is still used today, much to the locals dismay as it’s quite a bumpy ride! After having a quick look at a few other ruins on the way back, Ali was dropped off in a random place! The idea was to meet Auke back at the fountain where we had started! Turns out no one else on the tour knew we were getting dropped back somewhere else either, but no one else seemed to mind except one other couple.

It meant Ali had to find her way across Rome to where Auke and the girls were. At this stage, they had stopped into Hard Rock Cafe for some lunch and Titus was getting cranky. Ali had to walk more than fourty minutes to get to them. On the way she stumbled across the Trevi Fountain which was the most crowded tourist spot by far. She snapped a quick picture and kept going to find Auke and the kids.

Finally she made it and we had lunch before making the trip back home.

So what was Auke doing during Ali’s tour? Well, Auke and the kids decided to follow Ali to the fountain to see if she made it.

They then took a photo at the fountain, before walking all the way back up to the park. This is the park where they used to race their chariots.

At the park the girls bought some lollies at a shop - 2 euros per mentos roll!!! They then played at the park for a while. They wanted to also hire one of those four man bikes but Titus was too small! They gave up and started walking to where they raced the chariots.

Lana wanted to go in the middle strip between chariot lanes where some people were sunbathing so off the girls went to crash the party. Auke conveniently stayed behind.

After that they went to see a fountain, and they saw a lady trying to retrieve something from the fountain. So they wanted to put their feet in the fountain too. They took off their shoes and put their feet in the water to cool down.

Next they checked out a statue where Mila fell, and then Auke fell on top of Titus! Ouch! Titus got his first ever injury. The poor little guy had just fallen asleep too.

At that stage they made their way to Hard Rock Cafe where we all met up.

For dinner, the plan was to get some pizza. However, all the pizza places were closed! Clearly Italians done have dinner early, because every single pizza place anywhere near us don’t open their doors until 7.30pm! As the kids were exhausted, it was another night of watermelon for dinner!