Day Three - Rome

Today begin with a trip on the Italian metro. The crowded and busy metro was a marvel in efficiency, if a little stifling. From the Termini station near our hotel, we went to a busy district with markets set up in several different piazzas known as Campo De Fiori and Piazza Navona. The two markets we visited were dedicated to various artworks and images monuments, and fresh fruit and cooking. The artworks were incredible, and getting to experience the marketplaces and to buy fresh fruit and gelato brought a feeling of being immersed in the Italian culture that will be very difficult to forget. 

After a small shopping spree, we went to the old Jewish Ghettoes, near the River Tiber. Here, there were small engraved plates on the pathways in front of houses where Jewish people living there were taken away by the German Nazi movement. It was a strange experience, to see the memorials of people taken to concentration camps such as Auschwitz on a street filled with restaurants and people going about their daily business. After this visit to the old ghettos, we crossed the River Tiber, having lunch at a small, but very nice, bakery.

This then led to us visiting the Church of Santa Maria, an old and beautiful church, though nothing along the lines of those of the Vatican or Pantheon. This church is famous for the Bocca della Veritá, or the Face of Truth, a carved stone face that, according to legend, bites the hand off of any liars that place their hand into its mouth. None of our hands were bitten off, so we all seem to be honest people, or the legend isn't true. 

We then went to St. Paul's Outside the Walls, a massive basilica with huge Greek pillars within the structure, nearly rivalling some of the Vatican buildings in huge scale. The first look of the resting place of St. Paul, and where Salvado died, inspired awe in all of us. After some time spent in the basilica, we travelled back to our hotel through the metro, stopping in at some shops and spending some of our money along the way. Some of us then went to a more expensive part of town for shopping, and others stayed at the hotel. We then went to sleep early, ready to wake up at some ridiculous hour in the morning to catch the plane to Barcleona and then on to Tui via Compostela and Vigo.