Saying goodbye to new friends is hard. We spent the morning with Sue, Bill, Jim and Millie. While the official tour is over, a number of folks are staying a few extra days to wring the most of out of Italy before returning home. We hopped on the metro (logistically much easier with six than with 28), and made our way to Saint Peter in Chains a church (not surprisingly) dedicated to St. Peter . It contains the Moses statue by Michelangelo and the chains from the legend. These chains were ostensibly used to bind Saint Peter in Jerusalem.

Not too far away is San Clemente. Another church yes, but this church (like just about everything in Rome) is built on top of many layers of civilization. The difference here is that the’ve been excavating for many years.

This ancient church was transformed over the centuries from a private home that was the site of clandestine Christian worship in the 1st century to a grand public basilica by the 6th century, reflecting the emerging Catholic Church’s growing legitimacy and power. The archaeological traces of the basilica’s history were discovered in the 1860s by Joseph Mullooly.[1]

We went down some steps and entered into the 4th century complete with some artifacts and rooms of the early basilica. Down another layer and we were in a dwelling from around 100 AD. It’s quite fascinating, well worth a visit if you get a chance.

We had some time so we opted to walk back by the Coliseum and the Trevi fountain on the way back to our hotel. We said a fond farewell to our traveling companions and hopped in a cab to the airport.

Traffic in Rome is crazy, yet somehow it works. The whole notion of lanes is mostly lost on the drivers here with everyone darting in and out every which way. We briefly thought about taking the train to the airport but the door to door service of a cab is worth the 40 euro cost.

I’m a bit paranoid when it comes to air travel and would rather wait at the airport than stress about being late. Deanna puts up with me and we arrived at the airport well before we could even check in. Oh well. We flew on EasyJet which is one of the discount airlines in Europe. It cost us 97 euros for the two of us to fly from Rome to Nice. Not bad if you ask me.