Rome, August 2008
23rd August 2008
On Wednesday, we decided to take advantage of one of the Swiss
International Airlines advertised cheap
flights to Rome from Zürich.
After a good nights sleep in the Hotel Raphael, we headed into town. We usually select the Hotel Raphael for its handy location a matter of meters from the famous Piazza Navona and we can walk everywhere from there.
We had planned to head to the Domus Aurea today - but found the place closed during the weekend. As it turns out - it's only open Tuesday to Friday! Which is a real shame. I've been meaning to revisit the Golden House of the notorius Roman Emporer Nero for some time. Still we had an oppurtunity to visit the Trajan Baths which are a mere shadow of their former selves and of the Baths of Caracalla, which are much better preserved.
After
a cup of coffee, we headed to the Basilica di San Pietro in
Vincoli - the Basilica of Saint Peter in Chains.
The Basilica Eudoxiana was originally built in the 5th century
to house the chains which bound Saint Peter when he was imprisoned
in Jerusalem. Legend has it that when
the Pope Leo I compared these these chains (which
were gifted to him by Empress Eudoxia - wife of Emperor Valentinia
III) which the chains of St. Peter's final imprisonment in
the Mamertine Prison in Rome, the two chains miraculously fused
together. The fused chains are now kept in a reliquary beneath
the main alter in Basilica.
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