Italy Days 4-7--Pantheon, Bones Church, Rome Temple, Naples, Pompeii, Florence, Pisa, Holy Hand Grenade

 Italy Day 4 we got up early to see Trevi Fountain without a million people there. There were still quite a few people there, but they hadn't opened it up to see it close up yet. It was closed for cleaning so the actual fountains were not turned on, but that was okay. That meant we were able to get a picture without a ton of people in it even if it was from a ways away. It was still cool to see:

We then grabbed some breakfast sandwiches and ate them at the fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps. It was awesome being at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, however, there were a ton of bees that surrounded us because they liked our breakfast sandwiches, too. We ate rather quickly, but enjoyed the view while we ate. Here we are behind the fountain on the bench:

We then made our way over to the Pantheon. We had tickets for as a soon as they opened. It was really cool to see the Oculus or hole in the ceiling/roof as we walked inside.

The original temple was built between 27-25 BC. A fire destroyed the first building in AD 80. The current building was built  AD 126 and still remains today which is crazy! It is really old.

After seeing everything at the Pantheon we headed over to the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini church or aka the Capuchin Crypt. We took the audio guided tour through the museum:

Then we got to visit the actual Capuchin Crypt. Barberini, who was a cardinal had the remains of thousands of Capuchins excavated at a Monastery and thad their bones placed along the walls of the crypt like works of art and symbols. The crypt houses the remains of about 3,500 Capuchins buried between 1500-1870.

There were so many designs on the walls, ceilings made of bones--skulls, vertebrae, pelvis, scapulas, ribs, etc.:

We then walked over to the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major which is one of the four major papal basilicas. Last year was a Jubilee year--something that only happens every 25 years. Aaron and I were able to walk through the major doorway because they only open it during Jubilee which ended 1/6/2026. Supposedly when you walk through the opened door you are granted the complete remission of temporal punishment for confessed sins. I guess Aaron and I got forgiveness when we walked through the doors last year, but the kids didn't get forgiveness since the door was now closed because Jubilee was over for the next 25 years--haha!

We stayed here for a few minutes because it was so HOT outside and we had walked the whole way there. I had brought a small rechargeable battery fan along with me and we all really used it. Rome was really hot and humid. We all had sweat rings where our backpacks sat on our back and across the front of our shirts where the strap went all day every day we were there. 

Supposedly this basilica contains the Relic of the Holy Crib which means it contains the wood from the nativity cradle in Bethlehem.  

After that we walked over to Piazza Navona to check it out.

We went to check out the Sant'Agnese in Agone church in the Piazza. After that we went on a walking tour around the area from the Rick Steve's Italy Guidebook. You can see me reading from the book as we looked at different points of interest in the area.

Along the way we passed this statue:

I can't remember the history, but all the siblings told Noah that this was the statue of the 'Holy Hand Grenade' which is a reference from the stupid Monty Python movie. They had Noah believing it for a few minutes before he realized they were kidding. Got to love being the youngest sibling--haha! In reality the orb with the cross on top is called a globes crucifer which is a symbol of authority in Christianity. I think we will always refer to it as the 'Holy Hand Grenade' from now on, though.

We ended up back in front of the Pantheon again admiring this obelisk that was built by the Pharaoh Ramses II and was eventually brought to Rome and put here:

On our way back to the Air BnB we did stop and get some Gelato to keep us going. Yum!

Day 5 We got up early and took an Uber out to the Knights of Malta Keyhole. Since we didn't get a chance to see it on our cancelled Golf Cart Tour we decided to go see it that morning. This is a cool peephole that perfectly frames the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican through some cool hedges. Looking through the keyhole you look across three territories at once. You stand on Italian soil, look through the private gardens of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and see Vatican City in the distance. 

I took a turn to look:

This is what you actually see as found on a Google search:

This was my poor attempt at trying to take a picture of it all through my phone camera:

Just take my word for it, it was neat to see in person. All of us took turns looking through the peephole:

Next we walked our way down to the Temple of Hercules Victor. This the round building just behind Daniel's head in the picture.  This is the oldest surviving mostly intact marble building in the city. It was built around 120 BC. It was converted to a Christian church in the 12th century which helped preserve it. It was originally built in the roman cattle market area.

Next we headed over to the 'Mouth of Truth' fountain. It is an ancient marble mask that was famous for the legend that it will bite the hand off anyone who tells a lie. It was behind the metal bars. We got there before it opened so we just looked at it through the bars.

It was carved out of marble in the 1st Century AD. They think it was originally a manhole or drain cover for the sewer system. 

Next we walked through the Circus Maximus. 

We grabbed a quick breakfast on the other side. After that we caught an Uber out to the Rome Temple:

It was cool to walk around the grounds. Sarah wanted to take a few pictures to add to her future missionary pictures. Seeing as I was the only one that packed a skirt, we went to the Visitor's center to trade clothes so she could be cute in her pictures. They have some old olive trees that were brought in when they were building the temple. They pick the olives and press their own oil from these trees to be used inside the temple.

Aaron, Josh, Daniel and I did an Endowment session in Italian while Sarah and Noah waited for us in the Visitor's Center. After the Endowment session was over we picked up Noah and Sarah and we all did Baptisms afterward. Then we did a tour of the Visitor's Center. Here is all the Apostles and Christ:

We got to see the big stained glass window that shows many of Christ's miracles and parables throughout his life:

They have a bunch of Book of Mormons in different languages. Josh and Daniel were comparing who handed out the most diverse languages of the BOM on their missions:

They had a temple timeline of when every temple was built. They found the one from Aaron's mission, the Regina Temple in Saskatchewan, Canada.

After we were done at the temple we took an Uber back to our Air BnB and changed. We then walked over to the San Clemente basilica. This is also known as the 'Lasagna Church' since it contains 3 different levels that were built on top of each other spanning 2000 years. The upper level is a 12th century basilica that has cool mosaics and a carved wooden ceiling.

The First Underground level is a 4th century paleo christian church. We got to walk around and see some medieval frescoes depicting the life of St. Clemente:

The second underground level is a 1st-2nd century Roman ruins that contains a well preserved pagan Mithraeum which is a temple dedicated to the god Mithras. It also had a natural spring that ran through the base of the structure you could see.

After that we started walking back to our AirBnB. We came across this neat looking cathedral so we went inside to check it out:

On our way back to the Air BnB we also picked up some more gelato. You can't have enough when it is so hot outside!!

The next morning we had to get up at 4:30am so we could catch the early train out to Naples. It also happened to be Sarah's 18th birthday that day as well. Did I say it was EARLY!! Everyone passed out on our way out to Naples:

Except us. We had to keep track of where we were going:

We got off the train in Naples and caught another train out to Pompeii. Pompeii was really great. It was really hot, though. We got to see a lot ruins and the city layout. We started out in the main square:

We did see the pedestrian roads and the cart roads:

It was interesting to see the preserved mosaics. We love this one because it basically said beware of the dog. I guess that has been a thing for a LONG time:

We saw so much here. I put together a collage of some of our favorites:

Towards the end of our visit we did get to see some of the plaster casts of the people as the volcano ash hit. It was somber to know this was how they passed away.

At the very end we walked out to the amphitheater and got to see that. They still use the ancient amphitheater for concerts even now.

We spend 4 hours at Pompeii and didn't even scratch the surface. There was so much to see, but we didn't have much more time to devote there. We then caught a train back to Naples. In walking to our next spot we did stop for some street food. It was yummy!

After that we went over to see the 'Veiled Christ' sculpture found at the Sansevero Chapel Museum. They did not allow any pictures at that so I pulled some images off the internet of what we saw. This sculpture of Christ was carved using one piece of marble. It is amazing that it was made to look like Christ after he was crucified and then was covered with a sheet all from one piece of marble:

They also had some other amazing sculptures there, too. This other one was a favorite. All the chains were from one piece of marble as well:

After visiting that tiny museum we headed over to the Catacombs of San Gennaro. They didn't let us take pictures there, either. So here is what we saw from the internet:

After that we made the very long trek back to the Naples Market.

We walked through the Naples market:

We did stop to get some dinner. That is where Sarah ate the 'best pizza in her entire life'. I guess that would be a birthday win, right?!?  The calzone in front of Sarah was what Aaron and I ate. It was good.

Best Pizza!

After dinner we went into the Naples Cathedral to check it out. It was pretty cool.

We then got on the train back to Rome. It was a long, but cool day. Here we are on the train:

We did some crazy mileage in all the walking we did that day!! 15.8 miles!!

The next morning was an early morning, too. We caught an early morning train out to Florence. We walked from the train station to the Duomo or the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

We had tickets to hike up to the dome first thing. We got started. It is a steep climb with 463 stairs and narrow hallways.

We got up to the inside rim you can walk around. It was a bit disconcerting to be up so high!

We were pretty close the painted ceiling as well.

Then we continued on to the top. Here is Josh and Sarah climbing up the narrow spiral staircase:

The views at the top were impressive:

After a bit it was time to go back down. Climbing down into the tiny spiral staircase:

Josh struggled this whole climb because he is so tall. He barely fit.

On the way down we got to go around the other side of the inside rim and see the paintings close up:

Here is the ceiling when we got all the way back down to the inside of the cathedral:

Here we are taking a rest break on the bench for a few minutes:

Next we went out to walk around when it started just down pouring. We sought shelter under a narrow roof, but we all got soaked. The rain lasted for a while. Here we are sheltering:

We walked back to the train station and were soaked by the time we got there. We grabbed a snack and got on the train out to Pisa.

We walked from the train station out to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

We, of course, had to take the obligatory tourist pictures:

Then we got to climb up the tower.

It is really leaning. The pictures don't do it justice!

More spiral staircases:

We made it to the top:

Time to go back down:

I am standing straight while everyone is sitting on the bench inside. You can see how much it is leaning:

Next we checked out the cathedral. It is really ornate:

We walked back to the train station to catch the train back to Florence:

When we were back in Florence we got to see the Baptistry:

Then we decided to climb up the bell tower. More stairs....

We made it to a landing and looked out the window:

That's when the bells started ringing:

We then continued on to the top:

There was an opening where you could see all the way to the bottom:

The views were amazing:

Aaron sat the bell tower out because his knee was really bothering him. Here we are on the way down:

We made it!!

While Aaron was waiting for us the climb the bell tower he got to listen to different opera singers sing in the plaza. 

We met back up. We wanted to see the famous David statue in the museum, but unfortunately, most museums are closed on Mondays which we didn't know when we got our tickets--boo! We did settle for the replica in the plaza and got to see that David:

We of course had to stop to get some gelato before we caught the train back to Rome. They made our gelato into rose shapes. It was awesome!

It was an amazing day between seeing Florence and Pisa!