Day 7: Epigraphs and Sarcophagi

This post was written by Michelle:

As we near the half-way point of the trip, most of us have become accustomed to the mile-upon-mile walking we do on a daily basis. We all excitedly arose this morning at about 7:30, give or take, looking forward to all the new adventures this day would bring. After everybody got themselves together, we headed to the packed kitchen to make our Nutella filled breakfast (we were previously spoiled with all of the luxuries of Villa Vergiliana, and their delicious breakfasts).

We walked to our first stop today-the Museo Nazionale (wearing our most comfortable shoes of course). Here, we were introduced to Epigraphs. When faced with the question "What is an epigraph?" the teachers asked us to break down the word with the parts of it we knew. Because epi means after, and graph means writing, we determined it meant after writing, or a tombstone with a story. We explored various mind blowing sites through the museum, which showed us just how much the ancient Romans valued these so-called "epigraphs."

After we finished with the museum, we realized the time had come for the much built-up Scavi Tour (after exploring the depth of the gorgeous Vatican). We split up into two groups, and entered the separate country of the Vatican City. Our group was introduced to our tour guide, who was slightly intimidated by our "animated" conversation. We entered the area below the Vatican, and we were surprised to see what was there: ancient Roman tombs (Necropolis). The bodies were put into sarcophagi, which literally means flesh eater because the flesh of the bodies was eaten away. The tombs started out being built for the poorer parts of society, and moved on to the middle class. Our tour guide stressed the change and the development from the poorer to the richer tombs. The tour was definitely information packed, and one interesting tid-bit is that when a man was buried in a tomb, and he was removed from the tomb, his face was scratched off of the statue which showed who was located there.

The tombs then started to transition to religious purposes. We were shown the thought-to-be tomb of the great Saint Peter (the tour guide left us with the mystery of where his bones were actually located, because they actually were not located in the tomb). It turned out, Peter's bones had been moved, and later recovered. The most impressive site which we saw in my opinion at the Scavi Tour had to be the ancient bones of Saint Peter which give us a direct connection to God.

We all exited the building, both blown away, and relieved to be out of the small hot area. This was the part of the day which we had all been hoping for: Our free time in Rome! Everybody agreed that we needed food first, and then we all wanted to take a trip to the large Piazza Navona. We ate at one of the most fancy Italian restaurants we have seen so far in Rome, Where 2 delicious courses were consumed (that's a lot of food). All of us then took the short walk to the Piazza, where there were many street artists to entertain us, and a caricature artist, who sketched Jake, Sarah, and me. After a very relaxing afternoon in beautiful Rome, we took the bus back to the apartments, and just chilled at home for a while. A few of us went out for dinner around the block, and came home to be faced with the writing of our own epigraphs. Today could be looked over as an informative, and relaxing, satisfactory day: tomorrow will be thoroughly awaited.