Scavi Tour!

Thursday was the longest day everrr. We were meeting our first on-site class (Ancient Rome and its Monuments) at Piazza del Popolo, so all the Notre Dame students in the class left for the 45 minute walk over at 8:30. We had part of our class in the middle of Piazza del Popolo by an Egyptian Obelisk (they're all over Rome), and then walked even further to Villa Giula museum, where we saw two hours worth of Etruscan artifacts, and then walked an hour back home. After a quick lunch, we headed to the Vatican for what was probably my favorite thing I have done in Rome so far. Our Mystics, Saints, and Sinners (theology) professor arranged for us to have a tour of the Scavi, which is basically a tour of what is underground St. Peter's Basilica. We saw the cemetery and mosileums that were there before they built the Basilica, the bones that are believed to be those of St. Peter (and are directly below the altar in the modern Basilica), a beautiful chapel built for St. Peter, the national chapels and the Papal tombs - we even saw the tomb of Pope John Paul II!